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ALFRED KELLEY 



HIS LIFE ^ND WOEK 



BY 

THE HON. JAMES L. BATES 

Of the Ohio Bar 



IPRIY^TELY PRINTED 



COLUMBUS, OHIO 
Press of Robert Clarke & Co., Cincinnati 

1888 



¥- 






250 eopies printed for private circulation. 



Press of Robert Clarke & Co. 

CINCINNATI. 



no 



NOTE. 

This memoir was prepared by Judge Bates, of Colum- 
bus, a son-in-law of Mr. Kelley, at the request of the 
other members of Mr. Kelley's family, at whose instance 
it is now printed for private circulation among those 
who knew Mr. Kelley, and for the purpose of putting on 
record a statement of his services to the State, which he 
rendered in so many ways. It is due to the author of 
this memoir to say that he has not had the opportu- 
nity of reading the proofs, and for errors of editor- 
ship or the press he is therefore not responsible. 

Cambridge, Mass., October, 1888. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY TEARS. 

Birth and parentage — Removal to Lowville, ET. Y. — Educa- 
tion — Bound for Ohio — Dr. Kirtland's account of the 
journey — Cleveland in 1810 — Admitted to the Bar — Ap- 
pointed Prosecuting Attorney 1 

CHAPTER II. 

LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 

Elected to the Legislature — Service on committees — Re- 
ports on proposed amendments to the Constitution of 
the "United States — Report on canals — Marriage — Re- 
elected to the Legislature — Efforts to abolish imprison- 
ment for debt — Resolutions against slavery — Equaliza- 
tion of taxation — Investigation of the State Treasury — 
Disco very of frauds 6 

CHAPTER III. 

LEGISLATIVE SERVICE CONTINUED. 

Canals — A message from the Governor — Condition of the 
blacks — Elected to the Senate — A question about lot- 
teries — Mr. Kelley's report thereupon 18 

CHAPTER IV. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND THE PUBLIC LANDS. 

Public lands set apart for schools — Maryland's objec- 
tions — Legislative report in full — Equal privileges 
claimed for all the States — Maryland demands her 
share — Resolutions transmitted to Governor and Legis- 
lature of Ohio — Views of New Hampshire 24 

v 



Table of Contents. 
CHAPTER V. 

THE SCHOOL LANDS QUESTION CONTINUED. 

The Maryland and New Hampshire communications before 
the Ohio Legislature — The governor's message — Re- 
ferred to a committee — Mr. Kelley chairman — A com- 
munication from Vermont — Mr. Kelley's report — An 
exhaustive argument — Rights and privileges of the sev- 
eral States — Maryland's position controverted 37 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE OHIO CANALS. 

Mr. Kelley appointed a canal commissioner — His report on 
the subject — The considerations in favor — The Ohio 
market in 1822 — Mr. Kelley appointed acting commis- 
sioner — Proceeds to New York for study — Examination 
of routes — Preliminary surveys — Feeding public senti- 
ment — The example of the Erie Canal 59 

CHAPTER VII. 

CANAL COMMISSI ON ERSHIP. 

Locating canal routes — The commissioners' report — Two 
routes proposed — The question of expense — A public 
debt— The Muskingum and Scioto route authorized by 
the Legislature — Mr. Kelley's forecast, sagacity, and 
prudence — Appointment as canal commissioner — Three 
dollars per day — The work commenced — Health im- 
paired — Report for 1825 — Cost of the work. — Effect of 
the canals — Mr. Kelley's resignation as acting commis- 
sioner — Proposed inquiry into the accounts — The form 
of the proposal resented — Mr. Kelley's methods of man- 
agement 69 

CHAPTER VIII. 

POLITICAL SERVICES. 

Removal to Columbus — Election to the Legislature in 1836 — 
Services — Election in 1837 — The State Debt — Chairman 
of the Finance Committee — Imprisonment for debt 
abolished — Political corruption of the times — Call for a 
Whig General Convention — Picturesque scenes — Enter- 
taining delegates 94 

vi 



Table of Contents. 
CHAPTER IX. 

MR. KELLEY AS A FINANCIER. 

Financial distrust in 1840 — Mr. Kelley appointed Canal 
Fund Commissioner — The State embarrassed — Borrow- 
ing money e in England — Mr. Kelley's. course — The honor 
of the State at stake — Danger of repudiation — A crisis — 
Mr. Kelley's courage and skill 101 

CHAPTER X. 

REPUDIATION REPUDIATED. 

Judge Swan's testimony to Mr. Kelley's services at this 
crisis — A stormy outlook — Mr. Kelley's personal liabili- 
ties — His letter to the Ohio State Journal — Repudiation 
repudiated — Mr. Kelley's triumph — His financial mission 
to Europe , 112 

CHAPTER XI. 

A NEW BANKING SYSTEM. 

Retirement from office — Elected to the Senate — The cur- 
rency and its reform — The United States Bank — The 
panic of 1837 — A State bank for Ohio — Mr. Kelley's 
views — Foundation of the present banking system 129 

CHAPTER XII. 

REVENUE REFORM. 

Revision ^of the revenue system — Mr. Kelley's report — 

Equalization of taxation — Sound economics 138 

CHAPTER XIII. 

EQUALIZATION OF THE TAXES. 

Continued financial troubles — Mr. Kelley's proposal for 
equalization of the taxes — A bold step — Mr. Edgerton's 
speech — Mr. Kelley's reply — His resolution adopted — 
The contest continued 148 

CHAPTER XIV. 

PASSAGE OF THE TAX LAW. 

Mr. Kelley's speech. — Passage of the bill in the Senate — Its 

vii 



Table of Contents. 

passage in the House — Features of the law — The suc- 
ceeding political controversy over it — Its success and 
effect .,163 

CHAPTER XV. 

RAILROAD BUILDING. 

The beginning of railroads — The Columbus and Xenia Rail- 
road — Selling bonds in New York — The Cleveland, 
Columbus, and Cincinnati Railroad — The Cleveland, 
Painesville, and Ashtabula — Difficulties about gauge — A 
new battle of Erie — A strategic movement — Buying up 
a right of way — Mob-law at Erie — Mr. Kelley's '' Five 
Mile Farm." 174 

CHAPTER XVI. 

CLOSING TEARS. 

The fugitive slave law — Re-election to the Senate — Sessions 
of 1855-6 and 1856-7 — The improper use of the public 
funds — Investigation of treasury ; alarming disclosures — 
Bills to protect public funds — Bill to authorize payment 
of taxes semi-annually — Suggestion to Mr. Yaple as to 
public schools — Guarding the treasury — The new State 
House — Mr. Kelley's address of welcome — Close of his 
legislative career — The end 186 

CHAPTER XVII. 

PERSONAL TRAITS. 

Mr. Kelley's probity — Originating talent — Good judgment — 
Executive ability — Generous instincts — Literary tastes — 
Love of poetry — Scientific knowledge — Familiarity with, 
geography — Hospitality — Mr. Yaple's reminiscences — 
Business habits — Domestic traits — Recollections of 
Mathias Martin and Judge Swan — "Alfred Kelley's place 
in history " — Henry Clay's estimate — The last visit of 
his life— ''Just like him " 201 

viii 



ALFRED KELLET; 

HIS LIFE AND WORK. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY YEARS. 

1789-1810. 

Birth and parentage. — Removal to Lowville, N". Y. — Educa- 
tion. — Bound for Ohio. — Dr. Kirtland's account of the journey. — 
Cleveland in 1810. — Admitted to the Bar. — Appointed Prose- 
cuting Attorney. 



■ The personal efforts and official life of the subject of 
this biography are so intimately blended with the devel- 
opment of the resources of Ohio, with its commercial 
and financial prosperity, and with the establishment and 
maintenance of its credit, that the following narration 
will necessarily include much of these departments of 
the history of the State. Mr. Kelley's mental charac- 
teristics, and particularly his originating talent, were 
such, that even when he was associated with others his 
seemed to be the controlling mind, and he alone was held 
responsible for results. 

Alfred Kelley was born in Middlefield, near Middle- 
town, Connecticut, November 7th, 1789. He was the 
second son of Daniel and Jemima Kelley, and inherited 

1 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

characteristics from both parents. In him were com- 
bined intellectual force, tenacity of purpose, and a strong 
will, for which his mother's family was distinguished; 
with coolness, a disposition to thorough investigation, 
and an evenly balanced judgment, which were peculiari- 
ties of his father. His early associates were among the 
sturdy and well ordered inhabitants of New England, 
and he lived near enough to the Revolution to be affected 
by its general influence, and particularly by the attach- 
ment to home and country which naturally resulted from 
its privations and success. 

The bo} r remained in Middlefield until the winter of 
1798-9, when his parents removed with their family to 
Lowville, in the northern part of New York. The jour- 
ney was long, and the country to which they were immi- 
grating was new, even when compared with their New 
England home. Three or four white families comprised 
all the inhabitants except Indians. Here the father 
made favorable investments and accumulated a moderate 
property by industry and economy. 

The son had all the educational advantages which 
the region in which he lived afforded. He attended the 

o 

common schools and was several years a student at the 
Fairfield Academy. His scientific and literary attain- 
ments are conclusive evidence that he was a thorough 
student, and availed himself of all the advantages which 
were within his reach. Early in his life he exhibited a 
preference for the legal profession, and his studies were 
directed accordingly. At some time during the year 

2 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

1807 he entered the law office of Judge Jonas Piatt, one 
of the eminent jurists of the State of New York, under 
whose instruction he studied law until May in 1810, 
when he started for Ohio, in company with his uncle,. 
Judge Joshua Stow, and Jared P. Kirtland. Judge Stow 
was then a prominent and influential citizen of the State 
of Connecticut, and Mr. Kirtland was a medical student 
from the same State, and younger than Mr. Kelley. 
The two young men, like many others from New England 
and New York, were at that time seeking homes in 
Northern Ohio, which was then " the far West." Some 
traveled on foot, and others, as did this company, on 
horseback. 

During the previous winter General Peter' B. Porter, 
then a member of Congress, representing a district in 
Western New York, made a speech, in which he advo- 
cated the construction, by the general government, of a 
canal from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The public 
was much interested in the subject, and it was discussed 
often on the road, and at their stopping places. In a 
letter of Dr. Kirtland, in which he gives an account of 
the journey, he says : 

"The suggestion in the public estimation was Utopiau, as 
it was in the opinion of the older members of our traveling 
company. Our journey was along the route subsequently se- 
lected for that great work. Mr. Kelley was a firm believer 
in both its importance aud practicability. It was the subject 
of almost constant debate, not only in our traveling coterie, 
but at most of our stopping places, and among all classes of 
people. On Mr. Kelley devolved the task of defending the 

3 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

project, which he did on all occasions, with a skill and enthu- 
siasm that excited the admiration of every one, but which en- 
titled him to the rank of a monomaniac in the estimation of 
the older and conservative portions of his hearers. Conserva- 
tism was then the order of the day among statesmen, politi- 
cians, and financiers. 

" His example and influence over myself during that jour- 
ney I have felt through life. They were the best and most 
effective schooling I ever received. Bashful, timid, and un- 
stable at that time, I could not fail to admire in him such 
prominent and opposite traits of character ; and though I was 
then prone to consider him as severe and dogmatical, yet I 
was a full believer in all he said, as well as secretly an admirer 
of his mode of doing. Of course I adopted, to some extent, 
him as. a model and oracle." 

In the latter part of June, and in his twenty-first year, 
Mr. Kelley reached Cleveland and became one of its in- 
habitants. At that time Cleveland contained three 
framed and five or six log houses. Neither of the framed 
dwellings was finished. One person attended to all the 
business of the Post Office, the Recorder's Office, the 
Clerk of the Supreme Court, and the Court of Common 
Pleas. 

At the first session of the Supreme Court held in 
Cuyahoga County, and in the year 1810, Mr. Kelley was 
admitted to the Bar, and at the first term of the Court of 
Common Pleas thereafter he was appointed Prosecuting 
Attorney, which office he continued to hold by successive 
appointments until 1822, when he resigned on becoming 
Canal Commissioner. Business came to him imme- 

4 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

diately, and he soon practiced in many of the counties 
on the Reserve. 

The Hon. Elisha "Whittlesey, who was often with him 
on the Circuit, in a letter on the subject, says : 

"He was distiDguished in whatever business he undertook 
to perform." . . . "As a draughtsman he was accurate, 
and I question whether the records contain evidence of many, 
if they do any, defective bills of indictment, declarations, 
bills in chancery, or any other legal or equitable proceedings." 

He was also an advocate of extraordinary force and 

cogency, and when he relinquished his practice to take 

charge of the construction of the Ohio Canal, it was as 

large and lucrative as that of any attorney in that part 

of the State. 

5 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER II. 

LEGISLATIVE SERVICE. 

1814-1820. 

Elected to the Legislature. — Service on committees. — Reports 
on proposed amendments to the Constitution of the United 
States. — Report on canals. — Marriage. — Re-elected to the Legis- 
lature. — Efforts to abolish imprisonment for debt. — Resolutions 
against slavery. — Equalization of taxation. — Investigation of the 
State Treasury. — Discovery of frauds. 



In 1814, and as soon as he had arrived at the required 
age of twenty-five, Mr. Kelley was elected a member of 
the Legislature, and with William A. Harper represented 
Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, and Geauga Counties, which then 
comprised most of the Reserve. And although he was 
the youngest man in either branch of the General 
Assembly, the proceedings show that he was one of the 
most prominent and influential members. 

He was re-elected in 1815. It was a common practice 
at that time, as it has been since, for the Legislature of 
one State to suggest an amendment of the Constitution 
of the United States, or propose some other general 
object, and request the approval of it by the Legislatures 
of the other States, and thus exert a combined influence 
upon Congress. 

North Carolina, in pursuance of this custom, proposed 
an amendment requiring the " Legislatures of the several 

6 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

States to district the same, for the purpose of appointing 
electors of President and Vice-President of the United 
States," instead of electing them all by a general ticket. 
The communication of the State of North Carolina was 
presented to the Legislature by the Governor with an 
accompanying message, and referred to a committee of 
five, of which Mr. Kelley was chairman, who, in be- 
half of the committee, reported as follows : 

" The committee to whom was referred the resolution of the 
Legislature of North Carolina proposing an amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States requiring the Legislatures 
of the several States to district the same for the purpose of 
choosing representatives in Congress, and also for the purpose 
of appointing electors of President and Vice-President of the 
United States, have had the same under consideration, and 
are of opinion : 

"That as representatives in Congress are elected for the 
purpose of acting upon all the various subjects which may 
come before the National Legislature, as well of a local as of 
a general nature, it is important that they should be in- 
timately acquainted with the local situation, interests and 
sentiments of the particular section of the Union which they 
represent, and that the people should be able to know the 
qualifications of those whom they elect to represent them, and 
that the several States should be districted in the most advan- 
tageous manner to effect these important objects. 

"Yet believing that this can be done, and that most of the 
States are districted for the purpose of electing representatives 
in Congress under the provision of the Constitution as it now 
exists, and that serious inconveniences might in many in- 
stances result from requiring absolutely the several States to 
be divided into a number of districts equal to the number of 
representatives to which each State may be entitled, and no 
more. Your committee are therefore of opinion, that it is 
unnecessary and inexpedient to alter the Constitution of the 
United States in this respect. 

" Your committee are also of opinion that it would be im- 
politic to district the several States for the purpose of ap- 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

pointing electors of President and Vice-President, believing 
that it would be productive of no material advantages. 

" Electors being chosen to perform one definite act only, 
the same necessity for their being acquainted with the local 
situations and interests of the different sections of the Union 
does not exist as in the case of representatives in Congress." 

" Districting the States for the purpose of appointing 
electors, might also, by dividing a State, destroy that influ- 
ence to which it is entitled and would otherwise possess, and 
would in many instances prevent a fair expression of the 
public will, and produce a choice of electors a majority of 
whom might act in opposition to the wishes of a majority of 
the citizens of the State for which they were appointed." 

The Legislature declined to approve the proposed 
amendment. 

The State of Georgia also recommended an amend- 
ment of the Constitution of the United States, by which 
the term of senators in Congress would be reduced from 
six to four years. This w T as also received from the Gov- 
ernor, referred to the same committee, and reported 
upon by Mr. Kelley as follows : 

"The committee to whom was referred the resolution of 
the Legislature of the State of Georgia recommending an al- 
teration of the Constitution of the United States reducing 
the term of service of senators in Congress from six to four 
years beg leave to report : 

" That although your committee are fully impressed with 
the belief, that, in order to secure our natural liberties and 
privileges as well as to give toue and energy to the Govern- 
ment, it is of the utmost importance that the people should 
have frequent opportunities of expressing their sentiments 
and feelings upon National affairs, and of displacing such 
of their representatives as may be incompetent or dangerous, 
and of electing others to fill their places more able or less 
dangerous, yet to prevent the pernicious consequences of 
sudden and violent changes, to temper and regulate the force 
of popular impulse, to secure a proper degree of uniformity 
and stability to our National councils, they believe it to be 



Alfred KeUey ; his Life and Work. 

of equal importance that one branch of the general govern- 
ment should be composed of men who are not so imme- 
diately dependent upon popular opinion, who are subject to 
be less frequently changed, and a majority of whom may at 
all times possess the advantages of experience in legislative 
proceedings and a knowledge of the measures and policy of 
government. Your committee are also of opinion that it is 
inexpedient to change the principles of the Constitution, ex- 
cept to remedy material and palpable defects." 

The Georgia proposition was not approved. 

In 1816 Mr. Kelley was again elected to the Legis- 
lature, and with William Kerr represented the counties 
of Ashtabula, Geauga, Cuyahoga, and Huron. During 
this session a letter was received from DeWitt Clinton, 
one of the commissioners appointed by the State of 
New York for the purpose of ascertaining the practi- 
cability of connecting by a canal the Hudson with Lake 
Erie, calling the attention of Ohio to its importance as 
an outlet for its products, and suggesting that it should 
participate in the expense of the work. New York did 
not feel able to sustain the burden of such an under- 
taking ; and, as Ohio would be materially benefited by 
it, this proposition was made. The subject was re- 
ferred to a committee of which Mr. Kelley was chair- 
man ; and although the Legislature did not accede to 
the request the following extract from the report shows 
a full appreciation of the importance of the enterprise : 

"From an examination of the subject submitted to their 
consideration, your committee are fully impressed with the 
belief that the making of a canal from the Hudson River 
to Lake Erie, is an object of the first importance to this State, 
and to the United States in general, both in a commercial 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

and political point of view. The facility which it will afford 
to the exportation of the surplus produce of our luxuriant 
soil, and the consequent encouragement of agricultural and 
commercial enterprise, are effects too obvious to pass un- 
noticed, and of too much importance to be neglected. As 
affording a safe, easy and expeditious mode of a mutual in- 
terchange of commodities between different sections of our 
common country, highly advantageous to all, — as increasing 
the commercial connections, friendly intercourse, and ties of 
interest, and by these means strengthening the bonds of union 
between remote parts of the Nation, the contemplated canal pre- 
sents advantages vastly superior to those resulting from any 
work of the kind accomplished by the industry of man in any 
age or country." 

Referring to Ohio, with the Lake on the north, and 
the Ohio River on the South, its climate, soil, and 
streams, he says : 

" We are struck with its natural advantages, which, if im- 
proved by an enlightened and liberal policy, will render the 
situation of Ohio inferior to that of no State in the Union, 
or country in the world." 

In the summer of this same year, and on the 25th 
day of August, Mr. Kelley was married at Martinsburgh, 
in Northern New York, to Mary Seymour Welles, the 
eldest daughter of Major Melancthon W. Welles, of that 
place. An account of her life ought to be written, for 
the double purpose of perpetuating the memory of her 
unusual attractiveness and usefulness, and also of pre- 
serving some account of the habits, manners, and do- 
mestic usages of that early period. 

Mr. Kelley was again elected to the Legislature, in 
1819, and, with Ebenezer Merry, represented the same 
counties — Ashtabula, Geauga, Cuyahoga, and Huron. 

10 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

Down to this period, in the State of Ohio, and it is be- 
lieved in every other State, and in Great Britain, im- 
prisonment for debt was both authorized and practiced. 
Innocent and honest men were imprisoned for no other 
reason than that they were unfortunate debtors. The 
process issued without bond or other security on the 
part of the creditor. Cruel and even barbarous as it 
appears now, it was, at that time, a common and usual 
proceeding. At this session, and on the 24th of De- 
cember, 1819, Mr. Kelley took the first step in the his- 
tory of jurisprudence to relieve the innocent from this 
harsh and cruel practice. On that day he introduced 
a bill " To abolish imprisonment for debt." It con- 
tained also provisions, similar to those no.w in force, 
against fraudulent conveyances and other fraudulent 
acts of debtors which were intended to injure creditors. 

The proposition seems to us obviously just, and we 
even wonder that such a practice ever prevailed. It 
was, however, so old and so interwoven with legal usages, 
that only a minority could be induced to favor Mr. Kel- 
ley's bill. He was so far in advance of public sentiment 
on this subject, that it required many years of education 
to satisfy even a majority of the injustice and inhuman- 
ity of allowing the imprisonment of an honest but un- 
fortunate debtor at the will of his creditor. 

After the defeat of the bill, Mr. Kelley wrote to a 
friend : 

"The House has to-day disagreed, by a small majority, to 
my favorite bill, to abolish imprisonment for debt. I was not 

11 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

disappointed, although at first a large majority seemed to 
favor it. The time will come when the absurdity, as well as 
inhumanity, of adding oppression to misfortune will be ac- 
knoAvledged." 

At that early day, the aggressive and dangerous dispo- 
sition of the slave-holders was exhibited in a determina- 
tion to extend slavery into our free territories. The 
proceedings and discussions in Congress rendered it ex- 
pedient for the Ohio Legislature to declare its opinion 
on the subject. Resolutions were therefore introduced 
for that purpose, and the Senate and House disagreed as 
to the form in which that opinion should be expressed. 
To settle that disagreement, a committee of conference 
was appointed, of which Mr. Kelley was a member, and 
prepared and procured the adoption by the committee of 
the following preamble and resolution : 

"Whereas, the existence of slavery in our country must be 
considered a national calamity, as well as a great moral and 
political evil ; and whereas, the admission of slavery within 
the uew states and territories of the United States is fraught 
with the most pernicious consequences, and calculated to en- 
danger the peace and prosperity of our country. Therefore, 

Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That 
our senators and representatives in Congress be requested to 
use their utmost exertions to prevent the admission or intro- 
duction of slavery into any of the territories of the United 
States, or any new State that may hereafter be admitted into 
the Union." 

As a member of the committee, he reported the pre- 
amble and resolution to the House, by which it was 
adopted unanimously. 

At this session the inequality of taxation attracted 

12 



Alfred Kelley ; Ids Life and Work. 

the attention of Mr. Kelley, and, on his motion, a stand- 
ing committee on finance was appointed, of which he was 
made chairman. Xot long afterward, as such chairman, 
he submitted an elaborate report, in which he pointed 
out defects in the mode of valuing lands, which were 
then nearly the exclusive source of revenue, as well as 
in the method of assessing and levying taxes ; and recom- 
mended a mode of simplifying both. 

At that time, land was divided into three grades, and 
was taxed by the acre, and not according to its value. 
In relation to this principle of taxation, as well as the 
method of assessing and collecting taxes, the committee 
reported : 

"That they have taken into consideration that part of his 
Excellency's Message to them referred, as well as the various 
laws, now in force, relating to the revenue ; and from a dili- 
gent examination of the subject, your committee are con- 
vinced, that many defects exist in our present system of 
finance. Some of these defects affect the principles on which 
the taxes are levied ; but the more numerous, as well as 
more serious difficulties, appear to be in the method of assess- 
ing and collecting the taxes already imposed. 

" The most' equitable, as well as the most simple method of 
raising a revenue from real property, is to levy a tax on lands, 
in proportion to their value. And were it not for the many 
difficulties which suggest themselves to this method of assess- 
ment, in the present situation of the state, your committee 
would feel no hesitation in recommending its adoption. The 
expense attending an actual valuation of all the various 
tracts of land within the state, and of equalizing such valu- 
ation amongst the different districts or sections of the state, 
so that the various tracts might be assessed in proportion to 
their relative, as well as real value, would be very consider- 
able. In all new countries which are fast progressing in im- 
provement, and where experience as well as adventitious cir- 
cumstances are daily disclosing the important advantages pos- 

13 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

sessed by local situations ; the real as well as relative value of 
property is so rapidly changing, that the necessity of a fre- 
quent revaluation, and general equalization, would greatly en- 
hance the expenses of levying a tax. When all the lands 
within the state shall become subject to taxation, and shall 
have obtained something like a fixed and permanent value, 
and possibly before that period, this system may, with pro- 
priety, be adopted. 

" There appear to be many serious defects in the present 
method of collecting the tax levied on lands, and making 
entries, alterations, and transfers, on the tax lists. 

" The present system is, in the opinion of your committee, 
too complicated and intricate. Laws upon which all classes 
of community are required constantly to act, should be plain 
and simple, and should provide an easy method for rectifying 
mistakes when they occur. Your committee are aware of the 
difficulty of rendering any system of taxation, so complicated 
in its very nature, as plain and simple as would be desirable; 
yet they believe much might be done to remedy some of the 
most material defects of that which is now in force. 

" Some further provisions to secure the purchasers of lands 
sold for the non-payment of taxes, an undisturbed possession 
and complete title, seem to be necessary, in order to render it 
safe to purchase lands so sold. . . . 

" Your committee recommend to provide by law for strict 
regularity in all the proceedings to effect sales of land for non- 
payment of taxes, and that the deed of conveyance, bottomed 
on such sales, be declared, at least, prima facie evidence of 
title. 

" Many of the errors which have crept into our tax lists, 
originate in the inability of the boards of commissioners, in 
many of the counties, to trausact business which requires so 
much care and exactness. Experience proves that the quali- 
fications of a candidate to fill that office, do not always form 
a criterion of his success in the election." 

At this session also the term of the Treasurer of State 
expired, and he was re-elected by a joint ballot of the 
Legislature. Not long after his re-election, suspicions 
arose in regard to the safety of the public funds, and a 

14 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

special committee was appointed to examine the books 
of the Auditor and Treasurer. On the 7th of February, 
the committee reported a deficiency of §5,494.20, with- 
out recommending any action in relation to it. On the 
11th of February, in secret session, a resolution was of- 
fered to prepare and report articles of impeachment 
against the Treasurer of State, which was laid upon the 
table. At this stage of the proceedings, it appear- 
ing that nothing was likely to be done to secure the 
funds then remaining in the treasury, Mr. Kelley offered 
a resolution which was amended and adopted as fol- 
lows : 

"Besolved, by the House of Representatives, that a com- 
mittee of five members be appointed to examine the funds of 
the Treasury, and request the Treasurer to lock and seal the 
vault of the Treasury, and that said committee report, from 
time to time, to this House, any information they may think 
important." 

Mr. Kelley was one of the committee, but not its 
chairman, and on the 16th the committee made a report 
from which it appears that they waited upon the Treas- 
urer the day they were appointed, and he requested that 
the examination be delayed until the next day ; and an 
arrangement was made, on his suggestion, that the keys 
be divided between them. While in this situation, the 
committee thought it prudent " to keep an eye on the 
Treasury," and therefore a part of them kept possession 
of the Governor's room " for the night." The door of 
the Governor's room was opposite to, and across a small 

15 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

hall from, the door of the Treasurer's office. This extra- 
ordinary vigilance was considered necessary in order to 
prevent any interference with the funds, and especially 
the removal of any money or securities which might 
have been deposited temporarily to cover all or any part 
of the deficiency. It is generally the case that some 
outside parties are connected with such defalcations, and 
are willing to aid in concealing them and protecting the 
guilty officers. The next morning the Treasurer re- 
quested further time, and offered to resign on Monday, 
the 14th, if the examination should be delayed to that 
time. The delay was granted. On Monday the Treas- 
urer said that his sureties " had directed him not to re- 
sign his office." He however permitted the examina- 
tion to proceed, and the committee found and reported a 
deficit of $11,431.78. Before the examination was com- 
pleted the Treasurer resigned. The committee retained 
the keys until the 17th, when his successor was ap- 
pointed. 

Not long afterward the State received this deficit, 
and the settlement appears in the proceedings of a sub- 
sequent Legislature. 

It is quite evident to any one acquainted with the 
character of Mr. Kelley that the resolution as originally 
drawn did not simply " request the Treasurer to lock 
and seal the vault," but contained terms giving the 
committee such authority as would insure that result. 
This is corroborated by a statement of Judge Swan, who 
was living in Columbus at the time, and was familiar 

16 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

with all the facts ; which statement was made in re- 
lation to Mr. Kelley's election to the Senate in 1855 : 

"Nor was it entirely forgotten that on a former occasion, 
far back in our history, Mr. Kelley had detected and exposed 
a treasury defalcation, which had escaped the penetration of 
every other member of the Legislature. That his boldness 
and penetration had brought to light the unworthy incum- 
bent's guilt, and had driven him iu disgrace from his office. 
That by Mr. Kelley's firmness and extraordinary exertions, 
the amount abstracted from the Treasury had been secured, 
and the residue of the public money to a vast amount, and 
including fifty thousand dollars, a tax levied on the Bank of 
the United States, effectually secured from waste and plun- 
der." 

2 17 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER III. 

LEGISLATIVE SERVICE CONTINUED. 

Canals. — A message from the Governor. — Condition of the 
blacks. — Elected to the Senate. — A question about lotteries. — 
Mr. Kelley's report thereupon. 



The discussions, during the preceding eight or nine 
years, growing out of the New York Canals, had, by this 
time, suggested similar improvements in other States. 
The practicability and usefulness of such public works 
Mr. Kelley had advocated all through that period. Soon 
after he became a citizen of Ohio, he made himself 
familiar with its resources and its topography. No one 
in the State was more familiar with its streams and sur- 
face ; and at a very early day he became satisfied that 
the Lake and the Ohio River might be connected by a 
navigable canal. Few then concurred with him in this 
opinion ; but he was so accustomed to be in advance of 
public sentiment that he w T as not at all deterred by being 
in a minority. The subject was freely discussed by the 
members of the Legislature at this session, and, with a 
view of formally presenting it to that body and to the 
public at large, a resolution was adopted by the House, 
requesting the Governor to communicate thereto such 
information as was in his possession relating to a Canal 
connecting Lake Erie and the Ohio River. The Gov- 

18 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

ernor responded to this resolution by a message in which, 
he furnished " representations, ideas, and opinions being 
derived from casual observations and various indi- 
viduals." A careful reading of the message, which con- 
tains much statistical and topographical information, 
will suggest to any one familiar with Mr. Kelley's 
knowledge of these subjects and the clearness and force 
of his statements, that the argument, with the statistics, 
were furnished by him. Many copies of the message 
were printed and circulated by order of the House ; and 
this incipient step did much to form the public opinion 
which some years later secured that great public im- 
provement. 

At this period the prejudice against the African race 
was very intense even in many of the free States. The 
blacks were brought to this country by force, were com- 
pelled to labor in the South without compensation, and 
were, in that section, even debarred from education and 
from all legal means of protection against what were 
conceded to be wrongs inflicted by the whites. In Ohio, 
though educated and free, they were not allowed to tes- 
tify against a white man. The injustice of this rule was 
as evident to Mr. Kelley, then, as it became many years 
afterward to all reasonable men ; and at this session, 
with a small minority, he voted in favor of giving to the 
negro the right of testifying as fully as it was possessed 
by the whites. 

In 1821 Mr. Kelley was elected to the Senate, and 
represented the counties of Cuyahoga, Huron, and San- 

19 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

dusky. The Legislature convened on the 3d day of 
December, and on the 11th the Governor transmitted to 
the Senate a memorial of the Mayor, Aldermen, and 
Common Council of the District of Columbia — in which 
it is stated that by an act of Congress the memorialists 
are authorized to establish a lottery within the District 
as a means of procuring money for the purpose of 
" effecting important improvements in the City of Wash- 
ington, which the ordinary revenue thereof Avill not ac- 
complish," provided the amount " so authorized to be 
raised " shall not exceed ten thousand dollars each 
year. The memorialists further state that when these 
lotteries are put in operation, prohibitory laws are en- 
acted by some of the States, and the purpose of them 
is in part defeated. They therefore ask, in behalf of 
their fellow-citizens, the active interposition of the State 
of Ohio in their favor. Reference is made to the un- 
improved condition of the District, which twenty years 
before was " for the most part covered with woods, im- 
passable marsh, without inhabitants save the occupants 
of one or two farms.". And they state their wish to in- 
vest the proceeds in " the building of a City Hall, of 
Lancasterian schools, of a Penitentiary," etc. They 
also refer to the question whether a State has a right to 
prohibit the sale of lottery tickets authorized to be 
issued in another jurisdiction, in regard to which they 
express no opinion, but think it sufficient that it has 
been decided in favor of the prohibitory laws. They 
seek no controversy, and only ask of the States what 

20 



Alfred Kelley; Ms Life and Work. 

they " have always rendered to them." They conclude 
with a moving appeal on account of the name of the 
City, and the equity of their claim to toleration. 

This memorial was referred to a committee of three 
members, of which Mr. Kelley was chairman. He pre- 
pared the following report, and, as chairman, submitted 
it to the Senate on the 24th of December : 

"The committee to whom was referred the memorial of 
the ' Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the city of 
Washington,' praying that an act may be passed, ' authoriz- 
ing the sale, within the State of Ohio, of tickets in any lot- 
tery which has or may be authorized for public purposes in 
said city,' have had the subject under consideration, and now 
submit the following 

Report. 

"That, from an examination of the subject connected with 
the prayer of the petitioners, your committee are convinced 
it has been the policy of the General Assembly of Ohio to re- 
fuse all similar applications, as well those made by our own 
citizens as by citizens of other states. 

"Several applications have been made by citizens or bodies 
corporate within this state, for the purpose of obtaining au- 
thority from the Legislature to raise money by way of lot- 
teries to aid in the prosecution of some favorite objects. 
These applications, though made for purposes in themselves 
confessedly laudable, and of manifest public utility, have of 
late years been uniformly refused. This refusal has probably 
resulted from a conviction on the part of the Legislature, that 
lotteries are detrimental to the public welfare and demoraliz- 
ing in their influence on the community. In this opinion, 
your committee fully concur. 

" The direct and obvious tendency of lotteries is to take 
from the many, and give to the few ; to create fortunes for 
individuals at the expense of their fellow-citizens, and thereby 
in some measure destroy that equality in the distribution of 
property which we believe to be one of the strongest pillars 
of a republican government. We conceive the dealing in 
lottery tickets to be a species of gaming, which, in many in- 

21 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

stances, induces at least a partial reliance on fortune for that 
support and competency for the attainment of which pru- 
dence teaches us to rely on our own exertions. So far as 
this is true, lotteries tend directly to discourage industry, 
■which is the parent of national, as well as individual, wealth 
and prosperity ; and to promote idleness, and a spirit of im- 
prudent speculation, with all their attendant train of disap- 
pointments, vices, and crimes. We, moreover, conceive it 
extremely inconsistent for a legislature, whose acts prohibit 
private or individual gaming, under severe penalties, to sanc- 
tion legal or public gaming, which, in its effects, may be 
equally pernicious. Nor can we admit, in this instance, that 
the end, however laudable, will justify the means. 

" The raising of money by lotteries is only another method 
of taxing the people, more agreeable, perhaps, to some, be- 
cause voluntary ; but doubly severe and oppressive in its 
effect, as the people are taxed not only for the benefit of the 
public, but also to create fortunes for successful individuals — 
and we can see no difference, as it respects the burden of the 
contribution, whether the people are induced by flattering 
promises to part with their money, or whether it is taken 
from them by the strong arm of legal authority. 

"The people of Ohio, we believe, feel no hostility to the 
growth or improvement of the city of Washington ; on the 
contrary, we are confident they feel the same pride, and the 
same interest in the respectability and beauty of our national 
metropolis — of that city which bears the beloved name of 
Washington — which is common to the bosom of every 
American. But we conceive that neither justice nor good 
policy will permit this General Assembly, who are consti- 
tuted the guardians of the welfare and morals of the people 
of Ohio, to sacrifice those important considerations in order 
to aid in the improvement of the city of Washington, how- 
ever desirable that object may be. 

" Interesting as the questions of state rights and preroga- 
tives may be to the General Assembly and people of Ohio, we 
are far from accusing the citizens of Washington of any im- 
proper interference in the decision of those questions. And, 
even had they so interfered, we are not conscious that mo- 
tives of resentment would indicate to this General Assembly 
any other course in relation to the memorial under considera- 
tion than that pointed out by justice and sound policy. 
While the Legislature of Ohio are disposed to defend with 

22 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

firmness the rights and prerogatives of the State by all rea- 
sonable and prudent means, we believe they are not disposed 
to be illiberal or unjust, even to those who may not coincide 
with them in opinion. And we are confident that no reasona- 
ble man, or body of men, will attribute to improper motives a 
refusal of this General Assembly to extend to the citizens of 
other districts or states privileges which, from motives, of pol- 
icy, are denied to the citizens of Ohio. 

" Your committee therefore recommend the adoption of the 
following resolution, viz : 

"Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That 
the prayer of the mayor, aldermen, and common council of 
the city of Washington, soliciting the passage of a law au- 
thorizing the sale of lottery tickets within this State, is incon- 
sistent with sound policy, and therefore ought not to be 
granted. 

Resolved, That his Excellency, the Governor, be requested 
to transmit a copy of the foregoing report and resolution to 
the mayor of the city of Washington." 

The report was adopted by the Senate and House. 

23 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND THE PUBLIC LANDS. ' 

Public lands set apart for schools. — Maryland's objections. — 
Legislative report in full. — Equal privileges claimed for all the 
States. — Maryland demands her share. — Resolutions transmitted 
to Governor and Legislature of Ohio. — Views of New Hampshire. 



Very soon after the adoption of the Constitution of 
the United States, the importance of schools as an agent 
for the diffusion of knowledge was appreciated by the 
members of Congress as well as by all other thinking 
and intelligent people. It was obvious to them that our 
form of government is not adapted to a nation in which 
the masses are ignorant and illiterate. That body there- 
fore, in the formation of new States, provided for the 
stability of the government by setting apart in each of 
such States, with the exception of Kentucky, a portion 
of the public lands as a fund for the establishment and 
support of schools ; and, in some instances, of higher 
grades of institutions of learning. The aggregate of 
lands which had thus been set apart for schools in the 
new States, when added to what would be thus set apart 
in others to be thereafter organized, was very large, and 
its magnitude attracted the attention of the old or orig- 
inal States. Some of them entertained the idea that 
such appropriations deprived them of their share of the 

24 






Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

value of such lands, and were therefore unjust. Under 
the belief that they had been thus wronged, the Legis- 
lature of the State of Maryland, in the early part of the 
year 1821, adopted a report in which this claim is fully 
set forth, and a full equivalent, from the public lands, is 
specifically demanded. This report was approved by the 
State of New Hampshire in June of that year. That 
approval was also accompanied by a report in which the 
action of Congress, in behalf of the old States and 
Kentucky, is invoked, not as a matter of favor, but of 
right. 

These reports were transmitted to the several States 
of the Union for approval, and to the senators and mem- 
bers of Congress to induce their favorable action. The 
discussion involved important national questions, and 
was carried on between States. The amount involved, 
according to the reports referred to, was more than 
fourteen millions of acres of the public domain. 

To appreciate this discussion, and particularly the 
views entertained by the State of Ohio, it is necessary 
to introduce a large portion of the report of the State of 
Maryland. 

That State presented its view as follows : 

"The committee, to whom was referred so much of the 
Governor's message as relates to education and public instruc- 
tion, beg leave to report : 

" That they concur with his Excellency in believing edu- 
cation, and a general diffusion of knowledge, in a government 
constituted like ours, to be of great importance, and that, 
* in jjroportion as the structure of a government gives weight 
to public opinion, it is essential that the public opinion should 

25 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

be enlightened.' Your committee consider our government 
as emphatically a government of opinion. A general diffu- 
sion of knowledge, which is essential to its right administra- 
tion, can not be effected, unless the people are educated. No 
high degree of civilization, of moral power and dignity, or of 
intellectual excellence; no superiority in science, in litera- 
ture, or in liberal and useful arts, which constitutes the no- 
blest national supremacy, can be attained without the aid of 
seminaries of learning. The establishment of literary insti- 
tutions, then, of all grades, from the common school up to 
the university, becomes the first duty of the Legislature of a 
free people. 

Your committee are well aware of the difficulty, in the 
present embarrassed state of our pecuniary concerns, of pro- 
viding the means of making education general. They are 
fully sensible, that at this time large appropriations out of the 
public treasury for this purpose, all-important as it is, can not 
be expected. They deem it, therefore, their duty to recall to 
your notice a Report and certain Resolutions, presented to the 
Senate at the last session by a committee of like nature with the 
present, which has been referred to your committee, as a part 
of the unfinished business. The object of these Resolutions 
was to call the attention of Congress and the Legislatures of 
the several States to the Public Lands, as a fund from which 
appropriations for the purposes of education may with justice 
be claimed, not only by Maryland, but all the original States 
and three of the new ones. 

" One thirty-sixth part of all the States and Territories 
(except Kentucky), whose waters fall into the Mississippi and 
the Gulf of Mexico, has been appropriated by Congress, 
wherever the Indian title has been extinguished, and provi- 
sions made for further appropriations, according to the same 
ratio, wherever the Indian title may hereafter be extinguished, 
for the support of common schools; and other large appropri- 
ations have been made for the support of seminaries of a 
higher grade. Your committee are of opinion, that the 
States for whose benefit no such appropriations have been 
made are entitled to ask them of Congress, not as a matter of 
favor, but of justice. That this may fully appear, especially 
as the right of those States to an equal participation with the 
States formed out of the Public Lands in all the benefits de- 
rived from them has been doubted, your committee have 

26 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

deemed it proper to take a cursory view of the manner in 
which they have been acquired. 

"Before the war of the revolution, and indeed for some 
years after it, several of the States possessed, within their nom- 
inal limits, extensive tracts of waste and unsettled lands. 
These States were all, at that epoch, regal, and not projirietary, 
and the crown, either directly or through the medium of offi- 
cers, whose authority had been prescribed or assented to by 
the crown, was in the habit of granting those lands. The 
right of disposing of them was claimed and exercised by the 
crown in some form or other. They might, therefore, with 
strict propriety, be called the property of the crown. 

"A question arose soon after the declaration of independ- 
ence, whether those lands should belong to the United States, 
or to the individual States within whose nominal limits they 
were situated. 

" However that question might be decided, no doubt could 
be entertained, that the property and jurisdiction of the soil 
were acquired by the common sword, purse and blood of all 
the States, united in a common effort. Justice, therefore, 
demanded that, considered in the light of property, the vacant 
lands should be sold to defray the expenses incurred in the 
contest by which they were obtained; and the future har- 
mony of the States required, that the extent and ultimate 
population of the several States should not be so dispropor- 
tionate as they would be if their nominal limits should be 
retained." 

" By the treaty of peace in 1788, Great Britain relinquished 
1 to the United States all claim to the government property, 
and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof.' 

"The justice and sound policy of ceding the unsettled 
lands, urged with great earnestness and force by those States 
which had united in conquering them from Great Britain, 
strengthened by the surrender, on the part of Great Britain, 
of her rights of property and jurisdiction to the United 
States collectively, and aided, moreover, by the elevated and 
patriotic spirit of disinterestedness and conciliation, which 
then animated the whole confederation, at length made the 
requisite impression upon the States which had exclusively 
claimed those lands; and each of them, with the exception of 
Georgia, made cessions of their respective claims within a few 
years after the peace. Those States were Massachusetts, 

27 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

Connecticut, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and South 
Carolina, the charters of which, with the exception of New 
York, extended westwardly to the South Sea or Pacific 
Ocean. This circumstance gave to Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut a joint claim with Virginia to such parts of what 
was then called the North-western Territory as came within 
the breadth of their respective charters. The rest of that 
territory lay within the limits of the charter of Virginia. 
New York, indeed, had an indefinite claim to a part of it. 
Cessions, however, from all these States at length completed 
the title of the United States, and placed it beyond, all con- 
troversy. 

" The State of North Carolina ceded, its claim to the terri- 
tory which now constitutes the State of Tennessee. 

"Georgia (whose charter also extended westwardly to the 
Pacific Ocean) at length, in 1802, ceded the territory which 
now constitutes the States of Mississippi and Alabama, except 
a small part on the south side of them, which was acquired 
under the treaty ceding Louisiana. The conditions of that 
cession were, that the United States should pay one million 
two hundred thousand dollars to Georgia, and extinguish the 
Indian title within the limits which she reserved. 

" The United States have in this manner acquired an in- 
disputable title to all the public lands east of the Missis- 
sippi. 

"All the territory west of the Mississippi, together with 
the southern extremity of the States of Mississippi and Ala- 
bama, was purchased of France for fifteen millions of dol- 
lars. This sum, as well as the sums required for the pur- 
chase of the Indian title to the public lands, was paid out 
of the treasury of the United States. 

"So far therefore as acquisition of public lands has been" 
made by purchase, it has been at the common expense; so 
far as it has been made by war, it has been by common 
force ; and so far as it has been made by cessions from indi- 
vidual states, it has been upon the ground, expressly stipu- 
lated in most of the acts or deeds of cession, that the lauds 
should be 'considered,' to use the words of the act passed 
for that purpose by the State which made the largest ces- 
sion, ' as a common fund, for the use and benefit of such of 
the states as have become, or shall become, members of the 
confederation or federal alliance of said States, according to 
their usual respective proportions in the general charge and 

28 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

expenditure, and shall faithfully and bona fide be disposed 
of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatso- 
ever.' 

"In whatever point of view therefore the public lauds are 
considered, whether as acquired by purchase, conquest or 
cession, they are emphatically the common property of the 
Union. They ought to inure, therefore, to the common use 
and benefit of all the States, in just proportions, and can not 
be appropriated to the use and benefit of any particular 
State or States, to the exclusion of the others, without an 
infringement of the principles upon which cessions from States 
were expressly made, and a violation of the spirit of our 
national compact, as well as the principles of justice and sound 
policy. 

"So far as these lands have been sold, and the proceeds 
been received into the national treasury, all the States have 
derived a justly proportionate benefit from them ; so far as 
they have been appropriated for purposes of defense, there is no 
ground for complaint, for the defense of every part of the 
country is a common concern ; so far, in a word, as the proceeds 
have been applied to national, and not state purposes, although 
the expenditure may have been local, the course of the gen- 
eral government has been consonant to the principles and 
spirit of the Federal Constitution. But so far as appropria- 
tions have been made, in favor of any State or States, to the 
exclusion of the rest, where the appropriations would have 
' been beneficial, and might have been extended to all alike, 
your committee conceive there has been a departure from 
that line of policy which impartial justice, so essential to the 
peace, harmony, and stability of the Union, imperiously pre- 
scribes. 

" Your committee then proceed, to inquire, whether the acts 
of Congress, in relation to appropriations of public lands, 
have been conformable to the dictates of impartial justice. 

"By the laws relating to the survey and sale of the pub- 
lic lands, one thirty-sixth part of them has been reserved and 
appropriated in perpetuity for the support of common schools. 
The public lands are laid off into townships, six miles square, 
by lines running with the cardinal points; these townships are 
then divided into thirty-six sections, each a mile square, and 
containing 640 acres, which are designated by numbers. Sec- 
tion No. 16, which is always a central section, has invariably 
been appropriated (and provision has been made by law for 

29 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

the like appropriations in future surveys) for the support of 
common schools in each township. 

" In Tennessee, in addition to the appropriation of a sec- 
tion in each township for common schools, 200,000 acres have 
been assigned for the endowment of colleges and academies. 
Large appropriations have also been made in Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, Michigan, 
and the North-western Territory, for the erection and main- 
tenance of seminaries of learning of higher grade than com- 
mon schools. Your committee have not had an opportunity 
of ascertaining the exact amount of these appropriations, 
but, from such examination as they have been able to make, 
it is believed that they bear a smaller proportion to those for 
common schools than in Tennessee." 

Then, after some statistics which show the amount ap- 
propriated and to be appropriated, and making the ag- 
gregate as above stated, the document proceeds : 

" Such is the vast amount of property destined for the sup- 
port and encouragement of learning in the States and terri- 
tories, carved out of the public lands. These large appropria- 
tions of land, the common property of the Union, will inure to 
the exclusive benefit of those States and territories. They are 
appropriations for state and not for national purposes. They 
are of such a nature that they might have been extended to 
all the States ; they therefore ought to have been thus ex- 
tended. All the other States paid their full share for the 
purchase of the region west of the Mississippi, and for the 
extinguishment of the Indian title on both sides of that river. 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, South 
Carolina, and Georgia, besides paying their proportion of 
those expenses, ceded all their vacant territory on the east 
side oi* the Mississippi. All these States, therefore, might 
with great propriety complain of partiality and injustice, if 
their application to Congress for similar appropriations for like 
purposes should be refused. But of this refusal they need 
have no apprehension, if they are true to their own interests, 
and are united in asserting them ; for, if, contrary to all rea- 
sonable expectation, the States which have already received 
the benefit of literary appropriations should be opposed to 
the extension of them to their sister States, the latter are 

30 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

more than two-thirds in number of all the United States, and. 
have a still larger proportion of representatives in Congress. 
These States are Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Caro- 
lina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky, and, together, 
have one hundred and sixty-nine representatives in Congress. 
The favored States, on the contrary, have only seventeen rep- 
resentatives. The excluded States have, therefore, an over- 
whelming majority in Congress, and have it completely in 
their power to make appropriations for the benefit of their lit- 
erary institutions, upon the improbable supposition that the 
representatives of the favored States Avould oppose them in 
Congress, a supposition too discreditable to their character for 
justice to be admitted. 

"The magnitude of the appropriations that would be re- 
quired to place the States which have not yet enjoyed any, 
for the purposes of education, upon an equal footing with 
those in whose favor they have already been made, can afford 
no just ground of objection. For, superior as the population 
of those States is, yet, if the ratio of appropriation be ob- 
served with regard to them which has been adopted in rela- 
tion to the others, i. e. t one thirty -sixth part of the number of 
acres in the territory of each for common schools, and one- 
fifth of that one thirty-sixth for colleges and academies, the 
number of acres required will be much less than has already 
been given to the favored States and territories ; it will in- 
deed amount to but a very small portion of the public lands. 
For, according to Seybert's Statistical Annals, those lands, in 
1813, amounted to 400,000,000 acres. The amount required 
for all the excluded States would be less than two and a half 
per centum of that quantity ; to show which more clearly, 
your committee beg leave to submit the following statement, 
founded upon calculations made upon the extent of territory 
in each of those States, as laid down in Seybert's Statistical 
Annals." 

Then follows a table showing the number of acres it 
is claimed each of the old States and Kentucky are en- 
titled to, and the report concludes : 

" The circumstance, that the lands which have heretofore 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

been appropriated for the purposes of education are a part of 
the territory of the States for whose benefit they have been 
assigned, can furnish no reasonable ground for the preference 
which has been given them. The public lands are not the 
less the common property of all the States because they are 
situated within the jurisdictional limits of the States and ter- 
ritories which have been formed out of them. Such States 
have no power to tax them ; they can not interfere with the 
primary disposal of them, or with the regulations of Congress 
for securing the titles to purchasers; it is, in fact, Congress 
alone that can enact laws to affect them. The interest which 
a citizen of an Atlantic State has in them, as a part of the 
property of the Union, is the same as the interest of a citizen 
residing in a State formed out of them. But hitherto appro- 
priations of them for state purposes have only been made in 
favor of such States ; and the citizen on the eastern side of 
the Allegheny may well complain, that property in which he 
has a common interest with his fellow-citizen on the western 
side should be appropriated exclusively to the use of the latter. 
That this is the fact in regard to that part of the public lauds 
which have been assigned for the support of literary institu- 
tions and the promotion of education, can not be denied. 

"Your committee do not censure the enlighted policy 
which governed Congress in making liberal appropriations of 
land for the encouragement of learning in the West, nor do 
they wish to withdraw one acre of them from the purposes to 
which they have been devoted ; but they think they are fully 
justified in saying, that impartial justice required that similar 
appropriations should have been extended to all the States 
alike. Suppose Congress should appropriate 200,000 acres of 
the public lands for the support of colleges and academies in 
New York ; and Virginia, who gave up and ceded a great 
portion of those lands to the United States, on the express 
condition that ' they should be considered as a common fund 
for the use and benefit of all of them according to their usual 
respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure,' 
should apply for a similar grant, and her application should 
be refused ; would she not have a right to complain of the 
partiality of such a measure, and to charge the Federal Gov- 
ernment with a breach of good faith, and an infringement of 
the conditions on which the cession was made ? It can not 
be denied that she would. Congress have already made a 
grant of 200,000 acres of land for the support of colleges and 

32 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

academies, not indeed in New York, but in Tennessee. 
Would not Virginia, if she now made an application for a 
like grant, and were refused, have the same reason to com- 
plain, as if New York, instead of Tennessee, had been the 
favored State? 

"Your committee beg leave to illustrate, by another ex- 
ample, the equity of the principle which it is the object of 
this report to establish. Foreign commerce and the public 
lands are alike legitimate sources from which the United 
States may and do derive revenue. Foreign commerce has 
fixed its seat in the Atlantic States. Suppose Congress should 
pass a law, appropriating one thirty-sixth part of the revenue 
collected from foreign commerce in the ports of Baltimore, 
New York, Boston, Norfolk, Charleston and Savannah, to the 
support of common schools throughout the States in which 
they are situated ; the other States, every person will admit, 
would have a right to complain of the partiality and injustice 
of such an act ; and yet, in what respect would an act appro- 
priating one thirty-sixth part of the revenue derived from for- 
eign commerce to the use of schools in the six States in which 
it should be produced, be more partial or unjust than an act 
appropriating one thirty-sixth part of the public land in 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama, 
the six States in which the public lands on this side of the 
Mississippi are chiefly situated, to their exclusive benefit in 
the maintenance of their schools? 

" Your committee are aware that it has been said that the 
appropriation of a part of the public lands to the purposes of 
education, for the benefit of the States formed out of them, 
has had the effect of raising the value of the residue in in- 
ducing emigrants to settle upon them. Although in the pre- 
ambles of such of the acts on this subject as have preambles, 
the promotion of religion, morality, and knowledge, as neces- 
sary to good government and the happiness of mankind, have 
been assigned as the reason for passing them, and no men- 
tion has been made of the consequent increase in the value 
of the lands that would remain, as a motive for the appro- 
priation, yet the knowledge, that provision had been made 
for the education of children in the west, though other mo- 
tives usually influence emigrants, might have had its weight 
in inducing some to leave their native homes. If such has 
been the effect, the value of the residue of the lands has, no 
doubt, been increased by it. This increase of value, how- 

3 33 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

ever, has not been an exclusive benefit to the Atlantic States ; 
but a benefit to all the States, eastern and western, while the 
latter eDJoy exclusively the advantage derived from the ap- 
propriations of laud for literary purposes. The incidental 
advantage of the increase in value of the public lands in con- 
sequence of emigration, if it is to be considered in the light 
of a compensation to the old States, must be shown to be an 
advantage exclusively enjoyed by them. That this, however, 
is not the case, is perfectly obvious, because the proceeds of 
the lands thus raised in value by emigration, when sold, go 
into the United States treasury, and are applied, like other 
revenues, to the general benefit — in other words, to national 
and not state purposes. 

" It is moreover most clear that this increase of the value 
of lands in consequence of emigration produces a peculiar 
benefit to the inhabitants of the new States, in which the in- 
habitants of the other States, unless owners of lands in the 
new, have no participation. This benefit consists in the in- 
crease of the value of their own private property. 

" On the other hand, it is undoubtedly true that emigra- 
tion is injurious to the Atlantic States, and to them alone. 
While it has had the effect of raising the price of lands in 
the west, it has, in an equal ratio, at least, and probably in 
a much greater, prevented the increase of the value of lands 
in the States which the emigrants have left. It is an indis- 
putable principle in political economy that the price of every 
object of purchase, whether land or personal property, de- 
pends upon the relation which supply bears to demand. The 
demand for laud would have been the same, or very nearly 
so, for the same number of people as are contained within 
the present limits of the United States, if they had been con- 
fined within the limits of the Atlantic States. But the sup- 
ply in that case would have been most materially different. 
It must have been so small in proportion to the demand, as 
to occasion a great rise in the value of land in the Atlantic 
States; for it can not be doubted that it is the inexhaustible 
supply of cheap and good land in the west, which has kept 
down the price of land on the eastern side of the Allegheny. 
If the Atlantic States had been governed by an exclusive, 
local, and selfish policy, every impediment would have been 
thrown in the way of emigration, which has constantly and 
uniformly operated -to prevent the growth of their numbers, 
wealth, and power; for which disadvantage the appreciation 

34 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

of their interest in the public lands, consequent upon emigra- 
tion, can afford no adequate compensation. It appearing 
then perfectly clear to your committee that emigration is ex- 
clusively advantageous to the new States, whose population, 
wealth, and power are thereby increased at the expense of 
those States which the emigrants abandoned, the inducement 
to emigration furnished by the appropriation of public lands 
for the purposes of education in the west, instead of affording 
a reason for confining such appropriations to that quarter of 
the Union, offers the most weighty considerations of both 
justice and policy in favor of extending them to the States 
which have not yet obtained them. 

"Your committee beg leave to present one further reflec- 
tion to the consideration of the Senate, drawn from the effect 
produced by encouraging learning in the Western States 
alone, upon the relative moral power of the Atlantic and 
Mississippi States. They are far from wishing to make any 
objection to the augmentation of the intelligence and mental 
improvement of the people of the west. On the contrary, 
they sincerely desire the advancement of their brethren in 
that quarter of the Union, in every thing that can strengthen, 
dignify, and embellish political communities. But, while 
they entertain these sentiments, they can not shut their eyes 
to the political preponderance which must ultimately be the 
inevitable result of the superior advantages of education there, 
and they must, therefore, ardently desire that the same ad- 
vantages be extended to the people of the Atlantic States. 

" Your committee are pursuacled that, from the views 
which they have presented on the subject of appropriations of 
public lands for the purposes of education, the Senate will be 
satisfied that Maryland, and the other States which have not 
yet had the benefit of any such appropriations, are entitled to 
ask of the general government to be placed on an equal footing 
with the States which have already received them. They be- 
lieve that no one, convinced of the justice of such a measure, 
can question its expediency ; nor can they entertain any ap- 
prehension that an application to Congress, supported by the 
combined influence of all the States which are interested, would 
fail of success. For the purpose, therefore, of drawing the atten- 
tion of the National Legislature to this important subject, and 
of obtaining the co-operation of the other States, your com- 
mittee beg leave to recommend the adoption of the following 
resolutions: 

35 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

"Resolved, by the General Assembly of Maryland, That each 
of the United States has an equal right to participate in the 
benefit of the public lands, the common property of the 
Union. 

"Resolved, That the States in whose favor Congress have 
not made appropriations of land for the purposes of educa- 
tion, are entitled to such appropriations as will correspond, in 
a just proportion, with those heretofore made in favor of the 
other States. 

"Resolved, That his excellency, the Governor, be requested 
to transmit copies of the foregoing report and resolutions to 
each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress, with a 
request that they will lay the same before their respective 
houses, and use their endeavors to procure the passage of an 
act to carry into effect the just principle therein set forth. 

"Resolved, That his excellency, the Governor, be also re- 
quested to transmit copies of the said report and resolutions to 
the Governors of the several States of the Union, with a re- 
quest that they will communicate the same to the Legislatures 
thereof respectively, and solicit their co-operation." 

The report of the State of New Hampshire contains 
the following : 

" The committee to whom was referred so much of his ex- 
cellency's message, as relates to a communication from the 
Legislature of the State of Maryland, ask leave to report : 

"That the communication submitted to them embraces a 
report and certain resolutions thereupon adopted by the Legis- 
lature of the State of Maryland ; the object of which is to call 
the attention of Congress and the Legislatures of the several 
States to the public lands, as a fund from which appropria- 
tions for the purposes of education may with justice be 
claimed by all the original States, and some of the new 
ones. 

" Your committee have with much attention examined 
the grounds on which this claim is supposed to rest, and, 
from this examination, are satisfied that the principles con- 
tended for are just and equitable, and, therefore, do concur 
in the opinion expressed in the aforesaid document." 

36 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SCHOOL LANDS QUESTION CONTINUED. 

The Maryland and New Hampshire communications before the 
Ohio Legislature. — The governor's message. — Referred to a com- 
mittee. — Mr. Kelley chairman. — A communication from Ver- 
mont. — Mr. Kelley's report. — An exhaustive argument. — Rights 
and privileges of the several States. — Maryland's position con- 
troverted. 



The Governor of Ohio with his annual message trans- 
mitted to the Legislature the report of the State of 
Maryland, with that of New Hampshire as an accompa- 
nying document, and introduced a discussion of the sub- 
ject, which occupied a considerable portion of his mes- 
sage, as follows : 

"Notwithstanding that the appropriations of lands in the 
western country for the support of schools have, hitherto, been 
very little productive, as a literary fund, their advantage and 
value have been very highly appreciated, by a part of our 
brethren, in the Eastern States. A report and resolutions 
adopted by the Legislature of the State of Maryland, and 
now laid before you, will show that a claim is advanced to a por- 
tion of the public lands, in the new States and the territories, 
equal to one thirty-sixth part of the area of each old State, 
with the addition of one-fifth of that amount ; to equalize, as 
is pretended, a participation of endowment for schools, from 
this fund, among the States having common property in the 
national possessions. The pretensions therein set forth, and 
supported by the State of New Hampshire, I respectfully ad- 
vise, should meet the remonstrance of this Assembly, to pre- 
vent a scheme founded on principles believed to be mistaken 

37 



Alfred Kclley ; his Life and Work. 

and erroneous and fraught with serious wrong to this, with 
the other new States and the territories." 

Soon after the Legislature assembled, and on the 5th day 
of December, 1819, so much of " the Governor's message 
as relates to the report and resolutions of the Legislature 
of the State of Maryland, together with the accompanying 
documents," was referred to a select committee of five, 
of which Mr. Kelley was chairman. During the ses- 
sion the Governor of Ohio received from the Governor 
of Vermont a report and resolutions on the same suV 
ject, and transmitted them also to the Legislature. 
The report contains the following paragraphs : 

"And that, as large appropriations of the public lands 
have been made by the United States (and in the opinion of 
your committee with perfect propriety), to certain particular 
States, for the purpose of education, the rights of other States 
will be violated, unless a like appropriation be made to them, 
of the public lands, for the same purpose, in just proportion. 

"In those principles your committee fully agree with the 
Legislatures of the States of Maryland and New Hampshire, 
and believe the arguments detailed in the reports to the 
Legislatures of those States respectively, and particularly that 
from the State of Maryland, to be altogether unanswerable." 

This report was also referred, in the Senate, to the se- 
lect committee which had charge of the one from Mary- 
land. 

On the 26th of December Mr. Kelley presented the 
report of the committee, of which he was the author. 
The report is long and exhaustive — such as the grav- 
ity of the subject and the exigencies of the State re- 
quired. With the exception of a few paragraphs, in 

38 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

which the " plan of distribution proposed by the Mary- 
land report " is discussed, it is as follows : 

" The committee to whom was referred so much of the Gov- 
ernor's message as relates to the report and resolutions of 
the General Assembly of the State of Maryland, with the ac- 
companying documents relating thereto, and papers on the 
same subject, subsequently referred, having carefully ex- 
amined the subject to them committed, respectfully submit 
the following 

' ' REPORT : 

" That, from an examination of the subject and documents 
to them referred, it appears that the object of the Maryland 
report and resolutions is to call the atteution of Cougress and 
the legislatures of the several States to the public lands, as 
a fund from which appropriations may be drawn to aid in 
the support of common schools, and seminaries of a higher 
grade. They claim from the United States for those pur- 
poses an appropriation of public lands in favor of each of 
the old States, including also Kentucky, equal to one- 
thirtieth part of their respective territories. These appro- 
priations the report and resolutions under consideration 
claim as a matter of right, and which by a long course of 
reasoning they attempt to prove Congress can not justly re- 
fuse, and intimate that the States in whose favor the claims 
are set up have the power to enforce them. 

"In the sentiments expressed in the Maryland report 
relative to the importance of a general diffusion of knowl- 
edge throughout our common country, and in many other 
sentiments expressed in that able and ingenious report, your 
committee most fulfy and cordially concur. 

" That the public lands are a fund from which appropria- 
tions may in some manner be drawn for the purposes of edu- 
cation is a proposition which your committee do not at pres- 
ent feel disposed to controvert. But we can never subscribe 
to principles which would go to charge those States in which 
appropriations of school lands have been made as being still 
debtors for lands for which they have already paid more than 
a fair equivalent; nor can we agree to doctrines which would 
subject those States to contribution, on the ground of having 
received more than their just proportion of the public lands, 
when from a full and impartial investigation it will be mani- 



Alfred Kelley ; Ids Life and Work. 

fest they have received far less. We believe that neither the 
State of Ohio nor the other States which are placed in a simi- 
lar situation as it respects this question can ever be justly ac- 
cused of ingratitude, for refusing to acknowledge benefits 
which have never been conferred, nor of unchastened ambi- 
tion, in calling to mind principles which have been acknowl- 
edged by all the original members of the confederacy. 

"The claim advanced in the Maryland report seems to 
rest on the assumed ground of a donation having been made 
to those States whose waters fall into the Mississippi and the 
Gulf of Mexico, Kentucky excepted, of one thirty-sixth part 
of the lands within their respective limits, for the support of 
common schools, and one-fifth of the same amount for the 
support of seminaries of a higher grade. The word ' appro- 
priations,' it is true, is used in that report, but it is asserted 
that these appropriations will accrue to the exclusive benefit 
of those States in whose favor, it is contended, they are made; 
that they are appropriations for State and not for national 
purposes; and, it seems, are therefore considered donations to 
those States in whose favor they are made; and implies that 
no consideration or equivalent has been received by the 
United States for those appropriations. This hypothesis your 
committee believe to be founded in error; or, at any rate, to 
be but partially true. 

"The public lands of the United States, as stated in the 
report under consideration, are surveyed into townships of six 
miles square, and each township into thirty-six sections, con- 
taining 640 acres each ; one of which sections, or section No. 
16, is set apart, or appropriated, for the use of common 
schools; the remaining thirty-five sections are sold by the 
United States, and, as we contend, at an advanced price, be- 
yond what would otherwise be their fair value ; more than 
sufficient to pay for section No. 16. In other words, thirty- 
five sections, in each township, are sold to individuals, to be 
held in severalty; and section No. 16 is sold to the purchasers 
of the remaining thirty -live sections, to be owned by them, 
their heirs and assigns, in common, for certain purposes. 
Admitting this to be a fair statement of the case, as your 
committee believe it to be, it is clear that there is a complete 
purchase, made by our citizens, of the whole township, in- 
cluding section No. 16. And the whole superstructure, built 
upon the supposition of a grant or donation, falls to the 
ground, for the same reasoning will apply with equal force to 

40 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

the appropriations made in Symmes' and the Ohio Company's 
purchase for colleges, which were only greater inducements 
held out to larger purchasers. 

" Nor is the doctrine here advanced the mere creature of 
imagination, unsupported by example. Similar plans have 
not unfrequently been adopted by individual land-holders 
whose minds were sufficiently enlarged and liberal to enable 
them to pursue successfully their own eventual interest, and 
the aggregate amount received by them for a whole tract has 
undoubtedly been increased by such partial appropriations. 

" Your committee do not pretend that Congress, in the pre- 
ambles of acts, have distinctly avowed, as a motive for mak- 
ing these appropriations, that the value of the remaining 
lands would thereby be enhanced; but are willing, so far as 
it concerns the question now under consideration, to admit 
that the real as well as ostensible object was the encourage- 
ment of learning; nor is it necessary, in maintaining the prin- 
ciples here advanced, to suppose that each individual pur- 
chaser has distinctly understood the extent and value of his 
right or interest in section No. 16, and that the knowledge of 
this right has operated as an inducement to purchase. It is 
sufficient for our purpose that ^he real value of the remaining 
thirty-five sections, in each township, has been enhanced by 
the appropriation of section No. 16, and that this has been 
understood by wealthy and reflecting purchasers, whose opin- 
ions and example may be said, in a great measure, to fix the 
price of lands; and that an enhanced price has been actually 
paid for the remaining lands, in consequence of the appropri- 
ation for schools. 

"The committee of the Senate of Maryland seem to have 
foreseen this objection to their theory ; and have, in their 
report, attempted to answer it. In doing this, they admit 
that the appropriation for schools may have operated as an 
inducement to emigration, and may thereby have raised the 
value of the remaining lands; which increased value, they 
say, inures to the benefit of the Union, and the Western 
States participate equally with the Atlantic States in its ben- 
efits. Admitting this position to be correct, we are unable to 
see the force of the deductions which they would draw from 
these premises. It only proves that the purchase-money, 
when paid, is a common fund, in which all the States equally 
participate ; but by no means establishes the fact that all the 
States have contributed equally in raising this fund. If this 

41 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

increased value has been paid by our citizens, who have al- 
ready purchased public lands, or it is to be paid by those who 
may hereafter purchase, before they can derive any benefit 
from the school sections, we conceive the account is thereby 
liquidated and discharged ; our citizens have paid the full 
value of the grant; the Nation has received and appropriated 
the money for the common benefit of all ; and no claim can 
be justly predicated on the supposition of a donation, when 
no such donation has ever been made. 

"The grants of school lands for the benefit of the Connecti- 
cut Western Reserve, and the Virginia Military District, 
would, at first view, seem to form exceptions to our theory; 
but, if our doctrine be correct, these grants would operate in 
favor of the proprietors of those lands, or the holders of the 
warrants by which they were entitled to locate lands in the 
Virginia Military District, who were, at the time of making 
those grants, mostly non-residents; thereby enabling them to 
demand of purchasers a greater price for their lands or war- 
rants, in consequence of their increased value resulting from 
those donations. Had the lands within the Connecticut Re- 
serve been sold to actual settlers, or had the lands within the 
Virginia Military District been located and possessed by citi- 
zens of this State, these grants of school lands would un- 
doubtedly have operated in their favor ; and, so far as these 
lands were owned and possessed by citizens of this State, 
these appropriations inured to their benefit. These grants 
being made for the use of those districts, the proprietors, who- 
ever they were, undoubtedly received the benefit of those 
donations ; and at the time these grants were made, which 
was March 3, 1803, not more than one-tenth of the Connecti- 
cut Reserve, and less than one-third of the Virginia Military 
District, were owned by citizens of this State. So far as the 
grant of school lands for the use of the Virginia Military 
District operated to enhance the value of lands within that 
district, and thereby induce the holders of warrants to locate 
them within this State rather than in Kentucky, its operation 
was beneficial to that State, by leaving within her limits a 
greater quantity of unappropriated lands, subject to the con- 
trol and disposal of her Legislature. 

"From this view of the subject, it manifestly appears that 
the citizens of Ohio have actually paid for all appropriations 
of school lands made in their favor, with the exception, per- 
haps, of a small proportion of the amount granted for the 

42 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

benefit of the Connecticut Reserve and the Virginia Military 
District. 

'•In this statement, we have not adverted to the equivalent 
which Ohio, as a State, has paid to the United States, by 
exempting from taxation lands sold by them five years after 
the sale ; the benefit of which exemption has accrued directly 
to the United States, by its obvious effect on the price of pub- 
lic lands. This exemption, as the Governor in his message 
has conclusively shown, is a treble remuneration for the three 
per cent fund, and all other grants made by the United States 
in our favor. It is perhaps unnecessary here to call in ques- 
tion the authority of the convention (who were elected for the 
sole purpose of forming a constitution for this State, if they 
deemed it expedient, and of accepting or rejecting certain 
propositions previously made by Congress) to submit to Con- 
gress other propositions of a different nature. For, though 
we believe those propositions resulted from a mistaken policy, 
we are not disposed, after so long an acquiescence, to dispute 
their obligation or complain of their hardship. But we may 
well protest against being still considered debtors, when we 
have paid a threefold price for all appropriations made by 
Congress for our benefit. 

"But there is another view of this subject to which your 
committee beg leave to call the attention of the Senate. The 
claims set up in the Maryland report seem in some measure 
to rest on the following propositions : ' That before the war 
of the revolution, and indeed for some years after it, several 
of the States possessed within their nominal limits extensive 
tracts of waste and uncultivated lands :' That ' these States 
were all at that epoch regal and not proprietary provinces ; 
that the crown claimed the right, aud was either directly or 
indirectly in the habit of granting those lands:' That this 
claim was at least tacitly acceded to by the colonies ; and 
' that these lands might therefore with strict propriety be 
called the property of the crown :' That ' the property and 
jurisdiction of the soil' of these vacant lands ' were acquired 
by the common sword, purse and blood of all the States, 
united in one common effort: That Great Britain, at the close 
of the war, ' surrendered her right of property and jurisdic- 
tion to the United States collectively :' That therefore these 
lands ought justly to be considered as the common property of 
the Union. Admitting these propositions to be correct, it 
seems to your committee conclusively to follow, that this 

43 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

claim extends equally to all the vacant and unsettled lauds 
within the United States at the close of the revolutionary 
war, as well to those within the present limits of the original 
States as to those without or beyond those limits. Your com- 
mittee do not here take into view the lands purchased of 
France or Spain, because we conceive they do not necessarily 
affect the question about to be discussed, nor the right acquired 
by the United States, in consequence of acts of cession made 
by individual States, which will be a subject for subsequent 
consideration. 

"In order to a better understanding of the questions in- 
volved in the subject under consideration, it may be impor- 
tant to notice briefly some historical facts. 

"At the commencement of the Revolutionary War, the 
original States, then colonies of Great Britain, claimed their 
political existence, and their jurisdiction over the territory in- 
cluded within certain limits, by virtue of grants or charters 
derived from the crown. Some of the colonies, at that epoch, 
included within their chartered limits large tracts of vacant 
and unappropriated lands; of this number were Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North 
and South Carolinas, and Georgia. The territorial claims of 
these colonies, under their respective charters, w T ere, in many 
instances, conflicting with each other; two. or more of the 
colonies frequently claiming the same tract of country as com- 
ing within the limits of their charters. These charters were 
moreover extremely uncertain, their boundaries being so in- 
accurately and vaguely delineated, and founded on geographi- 
cal information so erroneous that no person can now presume 
to attach to their descriptions any definite meaning. But a 
circumstance still more remarkable, and which would go far 
to render any claim founded on those charters at least doubt- 
ful, is that those charters, with the exception, perhaps, of 
those of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, were 
surrendered or vacated, revoked or merged in the crown long 
before the Revolutionary War. The colonies, or States, of 
New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, and 
Maryland included, within the limits of their respective 
charters, at the period of the Revolutionary War, compara- 
tively small tracts of vacaut lands, and some of them, per- 
haps, included none. 

" Soon after the Declaration of Independence, these claims 
of some of the States to the large tracts of waste and un- 

44 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

settled lands which fell within their assumed limits seem to 
have formed a ground of complaint and dissatisfaction, on 
the part of those States whose territorial limits did not in- 
clude an equal proportion of those vacant lands. While the 
latter States looked with apprehension and jealousy on the 
preponderance which the former States would derive from the 
immense increase of wealth and population incident to- a 
widely extended territory, they viewed these extensive tracts 
of unappropriated lands as a common fund, acquired by the 
joint exertions and sacrifices of the whole confederacy, and 
which justice demanded should inure to the equal benefit of 
all the States. Congress, actuated by the same views, to use 
the language adopted in the preamble of an act of cession of 
North Carolina, * repeatedly and earnestly recommended to 
the respective States in the Union, owning vacant western 
territory, to make cessions of part of the same.' 

"In conformity with these repeated recommendations of 
Congress, and influenced, no doubt, by a sense of justice and 
spirit of conciliation peculiar to those days, the States claim- 
ing the most extensive tracts of vacant lands did, at various 
times, make cessions to the United States of such part of 
those lands as were not included within their present limits, 
with some important exceptions, and subject to various limi- 
tations and conditions. 

" The States making these cessions in all cases reserved to 
themselves the ownership of all unappropriated lands within 
their present respective limits, subject in some instances to 
the unsettled claims of other individual States. 

" Massachusetts moreover reserved to herself the ownership 
of all the unsettled territory included within the limits of 
the district now forming the State of Maine, and the owner- 
ship of soil of a large tract of country within the limits of 
New York. Connecticut also reserved the ownership of a 
tract of country bordering on the south shore of Lake Erie, 
and w 7 hich is more than equal in extent to the whole State 
of Connecticut. Virginia reserved the jurisdiction and 
ownership of soil of all that territory which now forms the 
State of Kentucky, and the ownership of the whole country 
between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers in Ohio, or so 
much thereof as might be sufficient to satisfy grants made to 
her citizens for revolutionary services. North Carolina re- 
served within the territory ceded by her the ownership of 
soil of so much thereof as might be' necessary to satisfy grants 

45 



Alfred Kelley ; Ids Life and Work. 

made to her citizens of a similar nature to those made by Vir- 
ginia. And Georgia required, as a condition of ceding her 
claim to the territory west of her present limits, the payment 
of 1,250 dollars out of the avails of the first sales of lands 
ceded, and that the United States should extinguish the In- 
dian title to an immense tract of country within the present 
limits of that State ; and, moreover, make an appropriation 
of part of the lands so ceded for the purpose of satisfying and 
quieting certain claims of individuals derived from the State 
of Georgia to part of said lands. Conditions relating to the 
disposition of the territories ceded, and the rights of the people 
inhabiting, and the States to be formed within those terri- 
tories, were also attached to the acts of cession of Virginia 
and the other States making the largest cessions; some of 
which conditions we shall have occasion hereafter to notice. 

"Thus we see, that the States of Massachusetts, Connecti- 
cut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and 
Georgia, have claimed and been permitted to retain, and ap- 
propriate for their sole benefit, immense tracts of vacant 
lands, which, to use the language of the Maryland report, 
' were acquired by the common sword, purse, and blood of all 
the states, united in a common effort,' while those States 
whose limits included little or no unappropriated territory, 
have been deprived of an equal participation in the benefits 
resulting from their united efforts. 

" Justice, on the contrary, would have required that all the 
waste and unsettled lands within the United States at the date 
of our National Independence, as well as those within the 
present limits of the original States as beyond those limits, 
should have been considered as the common property of the 
American people ; for all were alike acquired, by the com- 
mon exertions and sacrifices of the whole nation, and no indi- 
vidual or community could justly have claimed a greater 
share or proportion than what had been actually purchased 
and reduced to possession. 

"The people of the United States, at that period, may, 
with respect to this question, be considered as one great com- 
munity, having equal rights and privileges, and entitled to 
share equally in the benefits, as well as the hardships and suf- 
ferings, resulting from the contest in which they were en- 
gaged. As the provinces ' w r ere regal, and not proprietary,' 
in other words, as they had no just claim to the ownership of 
the vacant lands within their limits, it would seem to follow 

46 



Alfred KelUy ; his Life and Work. 

that the citizens of one State could have no better claims to un- 
appropriated lands than citizens of another. For it will not 
be contended that the people of those States which included 
within their nominal limits vacant lands bore a greater share 
in ' the heat and burden of the day,' in proportion to their 
numbers, than the people of those States whose boundaries in- 
cluded no such lands. 

" Notwithstanding the inequality and injustice of a con- 
trary doctrine, and notwithstanding the indefinite and conflict- 
ing nature of the tenures under which they held, many of the 
States claimed, not only the waste and unappropriated lands 
within their present limits, but also large tracts of vacant 
lands beyond those limits. These claims, as we have seen, 
were derived from royal charters, most of which had been 
long before revoked, surrendered, or merged in the crown. 
But, at this day, and in this country, we may be permitted to 
question the original rights of the crown of Great Britain to 
the immense regions which now form the American republic, 
which, at the time these grants were made, were inhabited by 
independent nations, whose country had never been traversed, 
and whose very names were uuknown to kings who so liber- 
ally bestowed what they never possessed. And for free and 
independent States to build their claims on the grants of 
sovereigns whose rights they deny and whose authority they 
disclaim, requires a course of subtle reasoning which it is 
difficult to comprehend. But to found those claims on 
charters which have long since been surrendered or revoked, 
appears still more preposterous. 

"Admitting that the people of several colonies, at the mo- 
ment of dissolving their connection with Great Britain, 
formed themselves into sovereign, independent communities 
or States, it is difficult to ascertain by what right they as- 
sumed to themselves boundaries beyond the limits of the ter- 
ritory actually possessed or occupied by the people of each 
State, or by what authority they claimed the ownership of the 
soil within those assumed limits, which was still waste and un- 
occupied, except by the natives. Should it be said that they 
had a natural right to assume to themselves such limits as 
their own moderation or their ambition might dictate, or that 
they still leaned on the broken reed of royal authority, to de- 
fine their limits, and should it be asserted that the ownership 
of the soil within whose limits, or the pre-emption right 
thereto, is an inherent right, a necessary appendage of their 

47 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

sovereign characters (and we can conceive of no other source, 
from whence those claims of the original States can be derived), 
it then follows that the same inherent rights and appendages 
of sovereignty appertain to the States since formed, and which 
are equally sovereign and independent. For conceding the 
proposition, that it is incompatible with the character of a 
sovereign State that other States should hold lands within its 
limits without its consent, and this doctrine is distinctly rec- 
ognized by admitting that the crown of Great Britain owned, 
and had the right of making grants of vacant lands, within 
her American colonies, or by admitting that such of the orig- 
inal States as included within their boundaries vacant lands, 
held those lands at the time of becoming independent, as a 
necessary prerogative of sovereignty ; the conclusion from 
these premises, that the new States have an indisputable claim 
to all the unappropriated lands within their respective limits 
appears to us unavoidable, unless it be denied that they are 
equally sovereign and independent. 

"The principles here advanced have been successfully as- 
serted by the States of Kentucky and Tennessee, in the con- 
troversies between those States and the States from whose 
territories they were formed, relative to the ownership of va- 
cant lands within the limits of those newly formed States. 
The same principle has been recognized by the United States 
in an arrangement made between the United States and Ten- 
nessee relative to vacant lands in the latter State. 

"Again, if it be conceded that the original States which 
have made cession of extensive territories to the United 
States had a just claim to the lands or territories so ceded, 
which fact is tacitly admitted on the part of the United States 
by requesting and accepting those cessions, it follows that 
those States had an undoubted right to attach to their several 
acts of cession such conditions as they deemed proper. Con- 
ditions were accordingly attached to the act of Virginia 
ceding to the United States the territory north-west of the 
river Ohio, and which now composes the States of Ohio, In- 
diana,' Illinois, and the North-western and Michigan Terri- 
tories ; one of which conditions, to use the words of the act 
of Virginia of 1783, after describing in what manner States 
were to be formed within the ceded territory, provides ' that 
the States so formed shall be distinct republican States, and ad- 
mitted as members of the Federal Union, having the same rights of 
sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the other States ;' another 

48 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

of which conditions, in the words of an act of the same State, 
of 1788, reciting the fifth article of the ordinance of Con- 
gress, of 1787, provides that, 'whenever any of the said States 
shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, such State shall 
be admitted by its delegates into the Congress of the United States, 
on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects what- 
ever, and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and 
state government.' Similar conditions were affixed to the acts 
of cession of North Carolina and Georgia. It would be diffi- 
cult to find words more definite or significant in their import, 
or expressions which would guarantee to the new States a 
more complete equality with the old, than those used or 
adopted in the acts of cession to which we have referred. 
We may then well question the authority of Congress to im- 
.pose on the people of those States, so to be formed, as condi- 
tions of their assuming the character of distinct independent 
States, any terms which would circumscribe their rights of 
sovereignty within narrower limits than those enjoyed by the 
original States. For we can not admit that the privileges se- 
cured to the States to be formed out of the territory ceded by 
the conditions above recited were abridged by that provision 
in the act of cession of 1783, which provides for the disposi- 
tion of the lands ceded, and is in these words : ' That all the 
lands within the territory so ceded to the United States (ex- 
cept as therein excepted) shall be considered as a common 
fund for the use and benefit of such of the United States as 
have become or shall hereafter become members of the con- 
federation or federal alliance of the States, Virginia inclusive, 
according to their usual respective proportions in the general 
charge and expenditure; and shall be faithfully and bona fide 
disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose 
whatsoever.' This provision, as we conceive, can only relate 
to any disposition which the United States might make of 
the lands within the territory ceded, before the States to be 
formed within that territory should assume the character of 
sovereign States, or to such disposition as the States so to be 
formed might, by fair and voluntary compact, permit the 
United States to make of the vacant lands within their re- 
spective limits. A different construction would be incompat- 
ible with that fundamental provision of the same act of ces- 
sion which provides that ' the States so formed shall have the 
same rights of freedom, sovereignty, and independence as the 
other States,' one of which rights of sovereignty, claimed and 

4 49 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

exercised by Virginia herself, was the ownership of all the 
vacant lands within their respective limits. Such a construc- 
tion would also he inconsistent with that enlightened and lib- 
eral policy which governed the State of Virginia, in extend- 
ing to Kentucky equal privileges, in respect to the vacant 
lands remaining at the time of their separation, with those 
which she herself enjoyed. Nor can it be supposed that Vir- 
ginia would willingly permit the United States to exact from 
the States to be formed out of the territory ceded by her more 
rigorous terms than those required by her of Kentucky. But 
this provision of the act of cession of Virginia can, by no 
possibility, be so construed as to take from the States to be 
formed out of the ceded territory the right of taxing the 
lands of the United States within their jurisdiction. 

"It may be contended that the States formed out of the 
national territory have, by solemn and express ordinance, or 
compact with the United States, agreed to relinquish all 
claims to the ownership of the soil, and the right of taxing 
the lands of the United States, within their respective limits. 
How far this assertion may be true, as it relates to the other 
States formed out of the territories ceded to the United States, 
your committee are not prepared to determine; but after a 
diligent search, we are able to find no such compact on the 
part of Ohio. The convention which formed our constitution, 
it is true, agreed, upon Congress acceding to certain modifica- 
tions of the terms which had been previously proposed by 
Congress, for the free acceptance or rejection of the conven- 
tion, to relinquish, in behalf of the State, the right to tax 
lands which might be sold by the United States for five years 
after they were sold. But admitting that the convention, 
who were elected to accept or reject certain propositions and 
not to propose other terms or modifications, had the power of 
binding the people of the State of Ohio by that agreement or 
ordinance, still this act goes no further than to relinquish the 
right of taxing the lands sold by the United States for five 
years after the sales. The ordinance of Congress of 1787, we 
acknowledge, provides that the Legislatures of those. districts 
or new States therein described 'shall never interfere with the 
primary disposal of the soil by the United States,' etc., and 
' shall impose no tax on lands the property of the United 
States.' Part of this ordinance purports to be 'Articles of 
compact between the United States and people of the North- 
western Territory, and the States to be formed therein.' But 

50 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

how a compact, which is, in other words, an agreement, and 
which necessarily supposes at least two contracting parties, 
whose assent is in all cases necessary to its validity, can be 
made by the sole act of one party, we can not comprehend ; 
and we presume it will never be contended, that either the 
people of the territory which now forms the State of Ohio, or 
the State itself, has ever expressly assented to those provisions 
of the ordinance of 1787. Nor do we admit that Congress 
had authority to pass an ordinance containing the provisions 
above recited and thereby abridge the sovereignty of the peo- 
ple, after they should have formed themselves into States. 
The enactment of this ordinance necessarily supposes, that the 
States to be formed within the North-western Territory, if 
' admitted on an equal footing with the original States,' and 
' having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and inde- 
pendence,' would have the ' right to interfere with the primary 
disposal of the soil;' in other words, might claim the owner- 
ship of the soil, and would also have the ' right to tax lands 
the property of the United States ;' else where the necessity 
of passing such an ordinance? If the ordinance in question 
had the effect to circumscribe the ' rights of sovereignty' of the 
States to be formed within the territory north-west of Ohio 
within narrower limits than those enjoyed by the original 
States, its provisions, as we conceive, were not only impolitic 
and unjust, but were inconsistent with the fundamental con- 
ditions contained in the act of cession of Virginia, and there- 
fore in no way obligatory. 

"Should it be said that the people now inhabiting the 
States formed within th^ territory ceded "by Virginia emigrated 
to this territory, and settled within its limits, under the ordi- 
nance of Congress, with the provisions of which they were 
presumed to have been acquainted, and that they have there- 
fore agreed to the compact therein set forth and declared, this 
inference is avoided by replying that the people may with 
equal truth be presumed to have been apprised of the rights 
guaranteed to them by the act of cession of Virginia, and by 
the Constitution of the United States, the latter of which pro- 
vides, 'that nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed 
as to prejudice the claims of the United States, or of any of 
the individual States,' thereby leaving all controversies relative 
to conflicting claims to be settled by the same rules of decision 
which had governed questions of a similar nature between the 
original States or between any State and the United States. 

51 



Alfred Kelley , his Life and Work. 

By no clause of the Constitution of the United States have 
the individual States surrendered the sovereign prerogative of 
claiming all unappropriated lands within their limits; this 
right therefore appertains to them now, if they ever enjoyed 
it, and appertains to all the States alike, if all are equally 
independent. 

"However these questions, which it may be said are 
strictly questions of right, may be determined, we conceive 
their decision can in no wise affect any equitable claim which 
the new States may have to an equal participation in the bene- 
fits accruing from the vacant or unappropriated lands, the 
joint property of the people of the United States. These new 
States are now members of the same confederacy whose bonds 
of union and mutual benefit embrace their older sisters. They 
do stand, or ought to stand, on the same footing with the 
original States ; they are, or ought to be, equally free, sover- 
eign and independent; and, as such, entitled to all the at- 
tributes and appendages of sovereignty which the old States 
are permitted to enjoy. 

" The citizens of the new States are members of the same 
great community which includes the citizens of the old, and 
as such are justly entitled to an equal participation in all the 
benefits resulting from the confederation and which grow out 
of a community of interest. To deny this would be to create 
an invidious distinction, equally impolitic and unjust; a dis- 
tinction calculated to foment sectional jealousies ; to produce 
discontent and animosity among the several States ; and finally 
to dissolve the ties of mutual interest and regard which bind 
us together as a nation. 

" Let us then recur to the facts connected with this view 
of the subject. We have already seen that the States of 
Massachusetts — including Maine, Connecticut, New T York, 
Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia — have 
retained large tracts of vacant lands, after the cession made 
by them to the United States, which lands, as well as those 
ceded, justice requires should be considered as common prop- 
erty of the Union. From these lands have been derived 
funds sufficient for the entire support of schools, where they 
have been judiciously managed, and appropriated to that 
purpose. They have, moreover, been sufficient in some of 
the States to provide in some measure for the ordinary ex- 
penses of their government, thereby partially relieving their 
citizens from taxation. We admit that the States of New 

52 



Alfred Kelley ; Ids Life and Work. 

Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, 
and perhaps South Carolina, have not been admitted to an 
equal participation in those lands, which justice requires should 
be considered the common property of the Union. But their 
having received less than they were entitled by justice to 
demand by no means proves that the new States have received 
more. The original States, including also Kentucky, have in 
the aggregate participated in those lands to a much larger ex- 
tent than the States which have been formed within the ter- 
ritories ceded to the United States. Your committtee have 
not been able to obtain the requisite information to enable 
them to form an accurate estimate of the amount of vacant 
lands which were, at the close of the Revolutionary War, in- 
cluded within the present limits of the original States ; and 
which have been appropriated by those States solely to their 
own benefit. The probable aggregate amount, however, ex- 
ceeds one-third of the whole amount of territory comprised 
within the limits of those States. On the other hand, the ap- 
propriations made in favor of the States in which appropria- 
tions of school lands have been made, even admitting 
thjse school lauds were gratuitous donations, amount to 
only one-thirtieth part of the lands contained within their re- 
spective limits. Thus it appears that those States which in 
the Maryland report are termed ' favored States ' have in the 
aggregate received of the public funds only one-tenth part of 
the amount to which, upon principles of equal justice they 
are entitled. Where then, we may demand, are the ex- 
clusive privileges which have been extended to the new 
States (Kentucky excepted), and upon which the claims of 
the original States to an appropriation of public lands in their 
favor, are founded? While many of the old States have de- 
rived from their vacant lauds immense funds to aid in the 
promotion of learning, in the prosecution of plans of internal 
improvement, and in defraying the expenses of their govern- 
ments, and while all have reaped the benefit of their soil being 
owned by their own citizens, and being subject to contribute 
to the expenses of their governments, the new States (Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee excepted) have not been permitted to 
own one foot of the soil, within their jurisdiction, they have 
been compelled in their infancy to support their governments, 
and make necessary improvements, solely by levying taxes on 
their citizens, and have even been denied the right of taxing 
the lands within their limits. Admitting the right, we can 

53 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

not see the policy of thus denying to the new States a par- 
ticipation in the advantages which the old States are permitted 
to enjoy. 

"It may be said that the new States had no political 
existence at the period of the Revolutionary War, that they 
bore no part in the expenses or dangers of that struggle which 
terminated in our national independence, and are therefore 
entitled to no participation in the vacant lands which were 
acquired by the joint exertions of the original States. To 
consider the question fairly, it is necessary to lay out of view 
for a moment those imaginary political beings the individual 
States, and consider the whole American people as one great 
community, by whose united exertions our national independ- 
ence and all other benefits resulting from the contest in which 
they were engaged were acquired. If this view of the subject be 
correct, it follows as a fair inference from these premises, that 
each individual of that community was justly entitled to an 
equal participation in that independence and all other benefits 
and privileges acquired by their common efforts. We would 
then ask whether the citizens of the new States were not at that 
time, and whether they are not still, members of that com- 
munity? Did not they or their fathers bear an equal share 
in the sacrifices, sufferings, and exertions of that day; did 
they not fight as bravely, bleed as freely, and open their 
purses as generously as did their fellow-citizens who have re- 
mained within the limits of the States which gave them 
birth ? And have they not ever since been as ready to step 
forward in defending the rights and avenging the wrongs of 
our common country ? Are they not liable to contribute in 
an equal proportion to the reduction of the national debt and 
all other burdens which the nation may be subject to bear? 
Where then is the justice, where is the policy, of withholding 
from the citizens of the new States the equal enjoyment of all 
the advantages which were derived from the common efforts 
of all ? Or have they lost their birthrights, and become dis- 
franchised, by emigration to the new States and submitting to 
the hardships and privations of a new country ? And let it 
be remembered that the citizens of the new States are not 
colonies of foreigners who have no right to claim the privi- 
leges of American citizens. 

" Upon principles of equality, justice, and sound policy, the 
new States may then demand that all the vacant lands within 
the limits of the United States at the close of the Revolution- 

54 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

ary War should be considered as the common property of the 
nation, in which every State has an equal right to participate; 
with strict propriety might they say, ' Let our elder sisters, 
who have already received such enormous doweries, bring 
them into common stock; let their vacant lands be estimated; 
let the new States, as well as the old who have received no 
part of these lands, come in for their proportionate share ; and 
we will agree to an equal distribution of this public land, to 
any extent which sound policy may dictate.' 

"The committee of the Senate of Maryland have skillfully 
kept out of view the vast tracts of waste and unsettled lands 
which fell within the present limits of the original States, but 
which upon their own principles ought to be considered as 
common stock. It would have accorded but ill with the view 
of a committee, who boast of having secured in their in- 
terest more than two-thirds of the States, and a still greater 
proportion of their representatives, to have agitated questions 
so overwhelmingly calculated to disunite a confederacy. 

"In dissolving the political connection which existed be- 
tween the people of the States of Massachusetts and Maine, a 
fair and equitable division of the unappropriated lands, the 
common property of both, is believed to have taken place. 
It is also believed that Kentucky, on the separation from Vir- 
ginia, retained most, if not all, the vacant lands within her 
limits which had been previously appropriated. These vacant 
lands will afford to each of these States ample funds for the 
promotion of literature and other purposes ; while the States 
formed from the national territory have been set off compara- 
tively portionless. The soil of the latter States being owned 
by the United States, or by non-resident individuals or com- 
munities, occasions a continual drain of money from these 
States, and, among other causes incident to their situation, 
tends to produce that extensive embarrassment which per- 
vades their financial concerns, notwithstanding the industry, 
enterprise, and frugality of their citizens, and the luxuriance 
of the soil which they cultivate. 

"No good reason can be assigned why the United States 
should require of the States formed within their territories 
more rigorous and illiberal terms, as conditions of their as- 
suming the character of sovereign States, than those required 
by Virginia and Massachusetts of the States formed out of 
their territories. We believe the United States were not less 
able to be generous, and sound policy would surely have dic- 

55 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

tated a course not calculated to create invidious distinctions, 
and subject some of the members of our confederation to 
endless embarrassments from winch others are perpetually 
exempted. 

"From the view we have taken of this interesting subject, 
your committee conclude that, if it be conceded that the va- 
cant lands within the United States, at the close of the Rev- 
olutionary War, were justly the property of the American 
people, considered as one great community, the claim ex- 
tended equally to the vacant lands within the present limits 
of the original States. The inference, then, is irresistible that 
the new States, as well as the old, beiug members of the same 
confederacy, and the citizens of the new States, as well as of 
the old, being members of the same community, have a right 
to participate equally in the whole of those lands ; and jus- 
tice requires that the whole be considered as a common fund 
for that purpose. If, on the other hand, it be admitted that 
the original States justly claimed and held all the vacant 
lands within their respective limits as a right incident to their 
charter as sovereign States, it follows, as a fair deduction, 
that the new States have the same right to claim and hold 
all the vacant lands within their respective limits, unless it 
be denied that they are equally sovereign and independent 
with the original States, a denial equally inconsistent with 
justice and sound policy. 

" We should not have anticipated from an enlightened and 
intelligent committee, who demand justice of the new States 
aud appeal to their liberality, an intimation of the superior 
power of the States which have not, as they contended, been 
admitted to an equal participation in the public funds with 
those States which they term ' favored.' Nora suggestion, 
' that if they are true to their own interests they have nothing 
to fear.' If power alone, or interests, is to decide the ques- 
tion, where the necessity of appealing to argument? and why 
that useless display of subtle reasoning, for which that com- 
mittee seem to have put in requisition the whole force of their 
superior talents? Should the States attempted, in said re- 
port, to be arrayed in support of the claims therein set up be 
determined to enforce those claims, by numerical superiority, 
the new States must submit, however unjust or ill-founded 
those pretensions may be. But, did we not disapprove and 
deprecate an appeal to similar motives and passions, we might 

.50 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

possibly, without the aid of inspiration, point with a prophetic 
finger to the time when the relative numerical strength of the 
parties will be changed, and say, 'with what measure you 
mete unto us, with the same shall it be meted unto you.' 
We would, however, fain believe that the force of truth and 
equity, though wielded by only 'seventeen,' will be found suffi- 
cient to contend successfully with the interested claims of ' one 
hundred and sixty-nine,' when founded in error. 

" The Maryland report, while it professes to be friendly to 
the advancement of intellectual improvement in the Western 
States, expresses a jealous apprehension that the people of 
those States, in their progress to literary and scientific emi- 
nence, will outstrip the people of the Atlantic States, and 
thereby obtain an undue influence in the councils of the na- 
tion. We can not forbear expressing our surprise that an in- 
telligent and liberal mind should entertain fears of the un- 
due influence of moral or scientific improvement. But we 
do not hesitate to affirm that all apprehensions on this subject 
will vanish on a careful investigation of the relative advan- 
tages enjoyed by the Eastern and Western States in this re- 
spect. The schools, in most of the old States, are liberally 
endowed, or supported, by funds derived from royal or private 
grants or from vacant lands. The literary institutions in the 
new States can never entertain a reasonable hope of being 
thus liberally endowed or supported, unless those States can 
successfully assert their claim to part, at least, of the vacant 
lands within their respective limits. The school lands, in 
these States, have, as yet, been very unproductive ; and, while 
the Legislatures of the States in which they are situated are 
restricted by the conditions attached to those 'grants, they 
must ever be so. Indeed, it may well be doubted whether 
more money has not been spent in legislating on the subject 
than the whole amount derived from those lands. 

" Your committee are aware, that they have traveled over 
ground, and attempted to investigate questions which at first 
view may not seem to fall within the province expressly as- 
signed them. They however thought it necessary in order to 
a full examination of the questions immediately or incident- 
ally involved in the subject under consideration. Since the 
question of the relative rights and privileges of the several 
States has been agitated, it is desirable that a full and not a 
partial view may be taken of the whole ground ; and though 
the committee have spun out their report to an unusual length, 

57 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

they are sensible that they have left many arguments in favor 
of their theory unnoticed. 

11 We are sensible that the new States may have been here- 
tofore considered by some, and perhaps may have considered 
themselves, as minor children, who ought to feel no other senti- 
ment than gratitude for their political existence, and who have 
no right to express even an opinion which might involve even 
incidentally the correctness of any claims of their elder sis- 
ters. It may however be important to the future welfare and 
prosperity of the new States to know on what ground they 
stand; and all questions which are calculated to create jeal- 
ousy and give birth to conflicting interests among the several 
members of our national confederacy can not too soon be set- 
tled on a satisfactory and permanent basis. 

" Your committee have endeavored to give to the subject 
that attentive and impartial consideration which its importance 
merits. They have, in the course of its investigation, referred 
to all the grants, charters, acts of cession, ordinances and 
other public documents, within their reach, calculated to throw 
light on the subject and lead to a correct result; and, after the 
most mature deliberation which time and circumstances would 
permit, they with much deference submit the foregoing re- 
port, and recommend the adoption of the following resolu- 
tions." 

The resolutions embody the principles maintained in 
the report ; and one of them requests the Governor to 
send a copy of the report and resolutions to " our Sen- 
ators and Representatives in Congress," and to each of 
the Governors of the several States and territories, and 
that they be laid before their legislative bodies. 

The report and resolutions were adopted by both 
branches of the Legislature and transmitted as re- 
quested. After that time, it is believed, the claim was 

not urged. 

58 



Alfred, J^elley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE OHIO CANAL. 

Mr. Kelley appointed a canal commissioner. — His report on 
the subject. — The considerations in favor. — The Ohio market in 
1822. — Mr. Kelley appointed acting commissioner. — Proceeds to 
New York for study. — Examination of routes. — Preliminary sur- 
veys — Feeding public sentiment. — The example of the Erie 
Canal. 



The report of the Governor, made two years previous, 
on the subject of a canal connecting Lake Erie with the 
Ohio River, was very instrumental in directing public at- 
tention to that subject. And al though 1 those opposed 
to it were active and influential, its importance was 
urged with such earnestness and cogency that near the 
close of the session Benjamin Tappan, Alfred Kelley, 
Thomas Worthington, and Ebenezer Buckingham, Junior, 
were appointed commissioners to cause such examina- 
tion, survey, and estimates to be made by an engineer, 
to be selected by the Governor, " as may be necessary 
to ascertain the practicability of connecting Lake Erie 
with the Ohio River by a canal through the following 
routes," viz : From Sandusky Bay to the Ohio River ; 
from the lake to the river aforesaid by the sources of the 
Cuyahoga and Black and Muskingum Rivers ; and from 
the lake by the sources of the Grand and Mahoning 
Rivers to the Ohio River. 

59 



Alfred Keller/ ; his Life and Work. 

During the second session, that of 1822-3, Mr. Kelley 
presented to the Senate the report of the Canal Com- 
missioners appointed at the preceding session, which was 
drawn by him. After discussing somewhat in detail the 
different routes they were required to examine, the gen- 
eral result of that examination, the prospective business 
of the canal, and the mode of procuring the means for 
its construction, are set forth as follows : 

"In a matter of such high importance to the State, noth- 
ing should be left to conjecture. The information obtained 
by the examinations made has disclosed the important fact 
that there is no doubt of the practicability of making a canal 
on some one, if not all, of the routes; but, until an actual 
location takes place, nothing like a correct estimate can be 
made of the expense of making a canal on any one route." 

" The fertility of our soil promises to secure to the labors of 
agriculture an abundance, very far beyond any probable con- 
sumption in our territory. 

" The amount of the tonnage which this surplus may furnish 
for the employment of canal navigation can not be estimated 
by the commissioners. When the millions of acres of forest 
lauds within the State shall become private property and cul- 
tivated farms ; when our present produce shall be quadrupled 
in amount, its weight and its value would startle the utmost 
credulity of anticipation to estimate ; yet wise and prudent 
legislators, with the experience this State has had, will look 
forward to such a state of cultivation and improvement, not 
as a visionary or uncertain speculation, but as the certain ef- 
fect of existing and operating causes. 

"But the products of agricultural labor will not be the 
only article of bulk and value the transportation of which to 
distant markets will be opened by a canal navigation." 

" The mineral coal of Ohio is another material, at present 
of value only in its immediate neighborhood, which by a 

60 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

canal navigation will become an important and very valuable 
article of exportation. To all these, the amount and value 
of which we know must be great, though we want the means 
of justly estimating them, may we not add the produce of 
manufactories which must spring up and nourish in a State 
possessing within herself, in her coal, iron ores, flax, wool, 
and a variety of other articles, abundant raw materials for 
manufacturing those fabrics of necessity and comfort with 
which we are now supplied from the work-shops of Europe ; 
from whence indeed we must cease in a great measure to be 
supplied, so soon as the government of the Union in its wis- 
dom shall place the American artisan on fair equal ground of 
competition with the foreign, in the American market." 

With reference " to the ways and means of making 
snch canal, should it be found practicable/' the commit- 
tee adds : 

"A State government owning no funds must resort to taxa- 
tion or loans for the means of carrying on and perfecting 
public works. If these works are of mere temporary use, 
like the current expenses of government, the cost of them 
should be defrayed by direct taxation ; for it would be both 
unwise and unjust to burden posterity with debts contracted 
for objects of no use nor importance to them. But the case 
is far different with works of great permanent utility ; and of 
which the ages which are to follow us on the stage of action 
will reap the benefit, and may well bear their proportion of 
the expense. The great public works in progress throughout 
the Union may be compared to the revolution achieved by our 
fathers, the. expense of which is indeed a burden upon us, but 
a burden light and trivial when compared with the great 
blessings we enjoy in consequence of it." 

During this session of the Legislature, Mr. Kelley 
also made an effort to abolish all fictions in the action of 
ejectment, but he could not overcome the attachment of 
the attorneys to useless forms and antiquated usages. 
This was an incipient step toward simplifying legal pro- 

61 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

ceedings, rejecting all surplusage and technicalities, and 
preparing the way for our present practice. It pro- 
ceeded from a mind which preferred reality to fiction, 
and simple and clear statements to verbosity and ob- 
scurity. 

The struggle for the Ohio Canal was commenced in 
1819. The project then had but few supporters, but 
those few were among the foremost men of the State. 
They were men of courage and forecast. They could 
and did appreciate the capabilities of the State and the 
results which would necessarily follow from affording an 
opportunity for their development. 

The project required courage, enterprise, and perse- 
verance. Few now appreciate the feebleness of Ohio as 
late as 1825, when the law was passed providing for the 
improvement of the State by a canal from the mouth of 
the Scioto River to Lake Erie, and from Cincinnati to 
Dayton. In 1820, the State had less than six hundred 
thousand inhabitants. In 1825, its entire revenue was 
less than two hundred thousand dollars. The treasurer, 
in his report for the year ending November 15, 1825, 
states the account as follows : 



"Amount of General Revenue Fund re- 
maining in the Treasury on the 15th of 
November, 1824 $63,535 18-5 

The amount received for taxes, etc., from 
the 15th of November, 1824, to the 15th of 
November, 1825 131,738 47-8' 



$195,273 66-3 
62 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

In 1822, in the interior of the State, wheat was worth 
but 25 cents, corn 12J- cents, oats 14 cents, potatoes 18 j- 
cents, per bushel ; pork 2 cents, beef 3 cents, butter 6 
cents, wool 50 cents, flax 10 cents, per pound ; eggs 4 
cents per dozen, chickens 5 cents each : and nearly all 
the trading was carried on by barter. There was no 
manufacturing except in households and for family sup- 
plies. A few sagacious men appreciated the extraordi- 
nary productiveness of the soil of Ohio, its inexhaustible 
mineral resources, and its means for maintaining every 
variety of manufactures. But land was cheap, money 
was scarce, and the inhabitants were poor. The task 
assumed by these bold men rendered it necessary to 
convince this scattered population, composed of poor 
land-owners, that these undeveloped treasures would be 
so far utilized, as a necessary consequence of the pro- 
posed improvements, that their cost would not be an op- 
pressive burden ; and also, that after paying that cost 
they would be enriched by having their surplus products 
brought to the doors of the eastern and southern mar- 
kets. The task w r as herculean, but " there were giants 
in those days." 

On the 27th of January, 1823, a " supplementary" act 
was passed, in which, among other things, Micajah T. 
Williams, of Cincinnati, was appointed a canal commis- 
sioner, in the place of Jeremiah Morrow, who had re- 
signed. Mr. Williams was an able and efficient co- 
laborer in gathering facts and information on the subject 
submitted to the board, in molding public opinion, and 

63 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

influencing the Legislature. In pursuance of the " sup- 
plementary act," Messrs. Williams and Kelley were ap- 
pointed " acting commissioners," and Mr. Kelley was 
directed to proceed to New York, " in the spring, in 
order to collect such information as might be obtained 
from an actual inspection of those works [the New York 
canals], parts of which were then in different stages of 
construction, from the first breaking of the ground to 
their completion." 

In pursuance of this direction he proceeded to New 
York, examined their canals, consulted with the different 
officers having charge of them, and procured all the in- 
formation which could be obtained in regard to the work 
generally and in all its details. This examination en- 
abled the Ohio commissioners to avoid the errors and 
improve upon the methods of those of New York. That 
they did so is made evident by a comparison, which 
shows that the Ohio canals, from Cleveland to Ports- 
mouth, and from Cincinnati to Dayton, were as thor- 
oughly built as those of New York, and much more 
economically. 

In June the commissioners met, and directed a survey 
and location of a route from Sandusky, south, by the 
Miami and Scioto Rivers. Subsequently, similar work 
was done on two other lines, one between the Sandusky 
and Tuscarawas routes, and the other on the line of the 
present canal. The results are fully and clearly stated 
in the report made January 21, 1824. The commission- 
ers premise their account of the work done on the sev- 

64 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

eral lines by stating the principle which governed them 
in their examinations and conclusions : 

"In determining on the location of a canal route, the mem- 
bers of the board have uniformly felt disposed to yield some- 
thing of their local sentiment and wishes, in order to unite 
cordially in accomplishing an object which they deem essen- 
tial to the honor and prosperity of the State, and we have the 
satisfaction of saying that there has been a concurrence of 
opinion in the direction of all our principal operations." 

In order to appreciate the labors of the acting com- 
missioners in making these preliminary surveys, all of 
which were done under their personal supervision, it is 
only necessary to open their report : 

" Our general plan of operations was very much deranged 
by the extreme unhealthiness of the season. Few of the men 
employed to make up the necessary parties were able to pre- 
serve their health or continue their service more than a week 
at a time." 

One engineer died, and the others were unable to go 
through the season, with the exception of Samuel For- 
rer, who left for a short time and returned. He also 
suffered much " from exposure and the sickliness of the 
season." The examinations were conclusive against the 
Sandusky route, as it clearly appeared that water could 
not be supplied at the summit except at an expense 
which prudence forbade to be incurred. 

Public opinion was not yet ripe for the adoption of 
any route, and, after giving a detailed account of the 
work done during the year, the commissioners add : 

" Few things contribute so much to the honor and prosper- 
5 65 



Alfred Kelley ; Ids Life and Work. 

ity of a State as a strong attachment of her citizens to their 
country, to its government, its institutions, and its character. 
This is the secret chain which binds together in one great 
family the numerous individuals of which a State or a Nation 
is composed ; the secret spring which makes them alive to the 
general interest of the community, to its honor and reputa- 
tion, and ready to make personal sacrifices for the promotion 
of public good. 

" Without this feeling, a State is composed of a multitude 
of uncongenial spirits, held together rather by necessity than 
from choice, and continually neutralizing any effort which 
may be attempted, by clashing interests or jealous animos- 
ities. 

"No nation has ever become great without some national 
character; some general affections of the people; some object 
to excite the pride of her citizens. Perhaps no better method 
can be devised to accomplish this object than to design and 
pursue with stability some leading measures of state policy ; 
some great work which will call forth the exertions, concen- 
trate the affections, of her citizens, and even flatter their 
laudable ambition ; some effort in which all may feel a com- 
mon interest; some achievement which will cause a glow of 
exultation in every bosom, at the thought of belonging to a 
State that has merited the admiration of the world. 

"Though the construction of the great canal of New York 
is a work so grand and imposing, its advantages to the public 
are not less apparent. The benefits which have already re- 
sulted from that work, although it is not yet completed, are 
so great as to stagger belief, if they were not capable of proof 
amounting almost to mathematical demonstration. That 
every saving in the expense of transporting the surplus pro- 
ductions of a country to market is just so much added to the 
value at home is a proposition too evident to require proof, 
and too plain to need illustration. We accordingly find that 
any article designed for a distant market increases in price, 
where it is produced, in exact proportion to the diminution in 
the expense of conveying it to its place of destination, unless 
affected by accidental circumstances. Taking this rule as a 
criterion, it is ascertained by information derived from au- 
thentic sources, that on the productions of the country ex- 
ported from the single county of Monroe, situated on the 
Genesee River, in New York, and the property received in 
return, more than two hundred and seventy-five thousand 

66 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

dollars was saved during the last season ; in other words, so 
much money was put into the pockets of those who raised that 
produce for market and chose who received such articles as 
they needed in return. This benefit has resulted solely from 
the Erie Canal, and the sum thus saved to a small section of 
country would more than pay the interest for one year on all 
moneys expended in the construction of all the canal lines in 
that State which were then completed. This fact alone 
speaks volumes in favor of canal navigation, and ought to 
carry conviction to the mind of every reflecting man. 

" Many people seem to think that every dollar expended in 
public improvements is so much lost to society ; that it is an- 
nihilated, gone out of existence never more to return. Such 
opinions are founded in error. Even public works which are 
erected for mere show and ostentation, which afford no profit 
and are of no practical benefit when completed, do not neces- 
sarily diminish the wealth of the community by whom they 
are constructed; if, to effect these objects, the rich are taxed, 
money is drawn from the secret recesses in which it has long 
lain useless, the labor of those who would otherwise have re- 
mained idle is put in requisition, and by this labor alone the 
work is erected ; for the money still remains in the country, 
but has only changed hands, generally for the better. If, 
then, a work useless in itself does not necessarily detract from 
the wealth of the community, one of great public utility can 
hardly fail to add to that wealth. It is believed by many 
men of extensive knowledge and enlarged political views, in 
ISTew York that the construction of their great canals would 
be beneficial to that State, even admitting those works to be 
abandoned the moment they are completed. Such has been 
the general spring given to industry, such the amount of 
labor put in requisition which would not otherwise have been 
called forth, such the benefit arising from the distribution of 
money in the best possible manner, that the inhabitants are 
now better able to pay the interest on all moneys borrowed 
for that work, than they would otherwise have been to pay 
their ordinary tax without it. But fortunately this is not re- 
quired of them. They now reap the benefits of that magnifi- 
cent undertaking, without even feeling that they are taxed to 
pay the interest of the moneys expended in its construction. 
When, we may ask, was a nation ever impoverished, in con- 
sequence of the construction of w T orks which had for their 
object public utility or convenience? We may safely chal- 

67 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

lenge the history of the world to produce an example of this. 
Perhaps nothing has so much contributed to national wealth 
and prosperity as the construction of roads and canals. They 
not only add to the value of the articles transported on them, 
but give a powerful stimulus to industry, by increasing its 
profits. Let it also be remembered that, as we reduce the 
labor expended in the transportation or any article, there re- 
mains so much more which may be applied to the production 
of that article. 

"A nation is not always rich in proportion to the gold and 
silver in her possession ; but in proportion to the productive 
industry of her citizens. Spain and England are examples 
of this; the one, possessing for centuries the exhaustless mines 
of the new world, has been continually poor; while the other, 
without a single mine of gold or silver, has been able, from 
the industry of her citizens, to subsidize kingdoms and wield 
at pleasure the destinies of Europe. 

"If population be strength and industry be wealth/ as has 
been justly said, Ohio even now is both powerful and rich.' 
Possessing a free population of 700^000 inhabitants, more 
than 100,000 of whom are men able and willing to labor, we 
ought rather to ask, 'What can she not do?' than doubt her 
ability to perform the work proposed." 

68 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CANAL COMMISSIONERSHIP. 

Locating canal routes. — The commissioners' report. — Two 
routes proposed. — The question of expense. — A public debt. — 
The Muskingum and Scioto route authorized by the Legislature. 
— Mr. Kelley' s forecast, sagacity, and prudence. — Appointment 
as canal commissioner. — Three dollars per day. — The work com- 
menced. — Health impaired. — Report for 1825. — Cost of the 
work. — Effect of the canals. — Mr. Kelley's resignation as acting 
commissioner. — Proposed inquiry into the accounts. — The form 
of the proposal resented. — Mr. Kelley's methods of management. 



In the year 1824, in pursuance of the act of the pre- 
vious General Assembly, and of the acts to which that 
is additional, the Board of Canal Commissioners ex- 
amined a number of routes, and not only located them 
but estimated their cost. Their report, which was made 
on the 8th of January, 1825, was full and complete. 
Their mode of proceeding and the different routes were 
so clearly and fully described, and the estimated cost 
was so plainly stated, that it was unnecessary to look 
beyond the report for the means of determining what 
line should be adopted. The wise prudence of the 
State and the care and skill of its agents clearly ap- 
pear in the opening paragraphs : 

" To enable the board to complete, in one season, the loca- 
tion of two entire lines across the State, as was required by 
the last General Assembly, it was deemed necessary to form 

69 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

two exploring and locating parties for that service. At the 
head of one of these parties they placed Mr. Samuel Forrer, 
whose persevering enterprise and skill had already given him 
strong claims to the confidence of the board. The earliest 
measures were taken to obtain the services of another en- 
gineer, whose experience and activity should qualify him to 
take charge of the second party. After some delay, they suc- 
ceeded in obtaining for that station Mr. William H. Price, of 
New York, a gentleman of considerable experience in the 
construction of canals, who came highly recommended from 
that State. Since he has been in our service, he has given 
satisfactory evidence of his skill and experience in the line of 
his profession, and of his future usefulness to the State, 
should the construction of her proposed canals be under- 
taken. 

" They also made application to the Board of Canal Com- 
missioners of the State of New York, as directed by the act 
of Assembly, for one of their most experienced and approved 
engineers, for the purpose, during the latter part of the sea- 
son, of revising and aiding in making the different plans and 
estimates of the cost of constructing a canal on the lines lo- 
cated." . - . . " This application resulted in the employ- 
ment of David S. Bates, Esq., one of the principal engineers 
of the New York Canal, who has been eno-asfed in the con- 
struction of that work from its commencement. Judge Bates 
arrived in this State about the first of September, since which 
time he has revised the whole of the lines which have been 
located." 



After describing the different routes, and giving a de- 
tailed statement of their cost as estimated by the engi- 
neers, Forrer and Price, and revised by Judge Bates, the 
report continues as follows : 

" The commissioners, from a full view of the subject, and 
an examination of the estimates, which will be laid before 
the General Assembly, are of opinion that it is practicable 
to make canals, from the Lake to the Ohio River, upon two 
of the routes which have been surveyed ; one commencing at 
the mouth of the Scioto River, and passing by the Licking 
summit and the Muskingum River, to Lake Erie. And the 

70 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

other from Cincinnati to the foot of the Rapids of the Mau- 
mee River ; both of which are of unquestionable importance 
and ought to be made by the State, as soon as the necessary 
funds can. be obtained and the wants of the people require 
them. 

"They recommend therefore the passage of a law author- 
izing the construction of the first mentioned line of canal and 
so much of the second, as extends from Cincinnati to Day- 
ton, and providing necessary funds therefor; leaving it to 
succeeding Legislatures to determine when it will be expedi- 
ent to complete the western line, to the foot of the Maumee 
Rapids. 

" Were the resources of the State adequate to the present 
construction of both canals, it might be expedient to under- 
take them at the same time. But, while we believe that the 
resources of the State are fully adequate to the construction 
of one entire route, we deem it highly impolitic to undertake 
both at once. Such an undertaking would not only subject 
the people of the State to burdens greater than they would 
cheerfully bear, but it could hardly fail to injure the credit 
of the State abroad by inducing capitalists to believe that 
we were attempting exertions beyond our strength, and that 
our councils were not governed by sound discretion. 

"If then it is imprudent to undertake the construction of 
two entire lines of canal from the lake to the Ohio River, at 
. the same time, the question recurs — which line shall be first 
constructed ? 

"In settling this important question, we are aware that 
local feelings and sectional interests will arise, and interpose 
their influence, in a greater or less degree. If these feelings 
and interests are suffered to govern, no favorable result can 
be expected. In all states or communities, whether great or 
small, many improvements are suggested which require the 
joint exertions of all. If all these improvements must be ac- 
complished at once, or not at all, the inevitable consequences 
would frequently be that nothing could be done, the strength 
of the State being inadequate to the simultaneous construction 
of so many works. It then becomes indispensably necessary 
to the progress of improvement that in many cases the in- 
terest of one section of the country or class of society be post- 
poned to those of another. In all those case, those improve- 
ments which interest the greatest proportion of the commu- 
nity, which will be the most extensively useful, in proportion 

71 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

to the difficulty of their attainment, and for which there is 
most urgent necessity, should be first accomplished. 

"In reference to the question under consideration, it will 
be observed that the Muskingum and Scioto route passes 
through the State nearer the center, and so as to divide its 
territory much more equally than the Maumee and Miami 
route ; and will therefore accommodate a much greater pro- 
portion of its area and population." 

The report contains the following paragraphs in re- 
lation to procuring funds for the construction of the 
canal, and the revenue system then in force : 

" By our report to the last General Assembly, it was seen 
that sufficient funds might be obtained upon loan, and on 
favorable terms, for the purpose of constructing a canal; and 
subsequent information has fully confirmed the favorable con- 
clusions then made upon this subject. For the commence- 
ment and completion of these works, it is believed that the 
State must necessarily borrow all or nearly all the sums 
wanted. The history of government debts is not likely to 
make very strong impressions in their favor, for, with few ex- 
ceptions, they have usually been contracted for objects totally 
adverse to the best interests of society. A public debt is, 
doubtless, a great evil to any State upon which it may be im- 
posed, if the money obtained by contracting it has been 
wasted; but societies, as well as individuals, may wisely con- 
tract debts, and leave them a charge upon their posterity, if 
they leave to that posterity in the estates purchased, or im- 
provements made by the moneys so procured, an ample patri- 
mony to discharge them. Such, it is believed, would be the 
case with a debt contracted for the purpose of making the 
proposed canals; for, with a prudent and economical ex- 
penditure in making them, the capital vested will be worth 
more when they shall be completed, even as merchantable 
stock, than they will have cost; and will increase in value 
while the population, wealth, and business, not of this State 
only, but of the immense regions made accessible to each 
other by them, shall continue to increase. A debt therefore 
contracted for such purposes can not be objectionable if the 
State possess the ability to pay the interest of it." 

" But the present system of taxation, although adequate to 

72 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

the support of government, and although it may afford a sur- 
plus applicable to other objects, is extremely unequal, and of 
course inequitable in its operation. It is unequal as a tax 
upon land, because land worth fifty cents or a dollar per acre 
is charged from twenty to a hundred fold more, in proportion 
to its value, than land which is worth twenty dollars and up- 
ward ; and this inequality can not be remedied by the present 
system without increasing the rates of land, and devising 
some plan which will secure the correct entry of all lands 
upon the tax lists. If the position be admitted that the 
necessary expenses of the State should be contributed by all 
the citizens in proportion to their property, then the land tax, 
as an exclusive source of revenue, is still more unequal and 
oppressive, in as much as it leaves exonerated from the bur- 
den of taxation a great and increasing mass of personal prop- 
erty; property, too, from which in general a greater profit 
is derived by its owners, and consequently a greater ability to 
share the public burdens." 

After a tabular statement showing the probable sum 
which will be required each year, with the amount of 
interest to be provided, the following statement is 
made : 

" The business will gradually increase on the canals as the 
lines of commercial intercourse become known and established, 
and as the surplus productions of the soil are augmented by 
the stimulus produced by an easy access to a safe and cer- 
tain market ; so that in the year 1837, the net income of the 
canals will pay the interest on all sums borrowed for their 
construction. After which time, the increase of business and 
revenue on the canals will yield a surplus fund for the re- 
demption of the loans." 

On the 1st of February, 1825, an additional report 
was made containing a detailed statement of the ex- 
penses of the commissioners in making their examina- 
tions, surveys, and estimates, and in regard to those ex- 
penses, it is said : 

73 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

" We believe that the history of canaling furnishes no instance 
of an equal length of line having been located, and the ex- 
penses of constructing a canal thereon estimated, in the same 
length of time, nor at so small an expense. There was located 
in New York, in the year 1816, about four hundred miles of 
canal line. This was accomplished for sixteen thousand 
nine hundred and thirty-seven dollars — a sum nearly equal to 
the whole cost of our examinations, surveys, and locations for 
three years ; in which eight hundred miles of line have been 
actually located and staked out on various routes, and at 
least two thousand miles of random leveling have been per- 
formed." 

On the 4th of February a bill drawn by M. T- 
Williams, then Speaker of the House, " To provide for 
the internal improvement of the State of Ohio by navi- 
gable canals," and which authorized the commissioners 
therein provided for to construct a canal on the 
Muskingum and Scioto route from the mouth of the 
Scioto River to Lake Erie, and also a canal on so much 
of the Maumee and Miami line as lies between Cincin- 
nati and Mad River, at or near Dayton, was enacted, 
signed, and became a law. 

The reports preceding this law bear upon their face 
the indelible impress of Mr. Kelley's forecast, sagacity, 
and judgment. They did much to form public opinion, 
and induce the Legislature to regard the enterprise as 
essential to the rapid settlement of the State, the devel- 
opment of its mineral and agricultural resources, and 
that it was then able to undertake the work. Its success 
was, however, a matter of judgment, and not a certainty, 
and the Legislature felt the responsibility it assumed ; 
and on the same day that the law was enacted, a joint 

74 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

resolution was adopted appointing the following Board 
of Canal Commissioners : Alfred Kelley, Micajah T. 
Williams, Thomas Worthington, Benjamin Tappan, John 
Johnson, Isaac Miner, and Nathaniel Beasley. 

Mr. Kelley had identified himself with the project from 
the beginning, including the surveys, locations, and esti- 
mates, and now, when the work was to be actually under- 
taken, and the faith of the State was pledged for its cost, 
the State called upon him to realize for her the results 
which had been so clearly stated and so confidently urged. 
He accepted the trust, and staked his reputation upon 
the issue. 

When he accepted the office of Canal Commissioner, 
he had a leading and a lucrative practice as a lawyer, 
and a home on the bank of Lake Erie, in Cleveland. 
They were both entirely abandoned for the responsibil- 
ity, privations, and danger to health, and even of life, 
which were necessarily incident to such a work. If selfish 
ambition or avarice ever influenced his conduct, or for a 
moment had a lodgment in his mind, the State, at this 
period would not have commanded his services. The 
maximum of compensation allowed by law was three dol- 
lars per day. This was to him no compensation present 
or prospective. He was solely influenced and controlled 
by the hope and belief that when the work should be 
completed, a lasting benefit would be conferred upon his 
adopted State, and the consciousness that all his sacrifices 
would be made for the benefit of the public. When the 
work was commenced, he was in the prime of life, pos- 

75 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

sessed of a strong constitution, and unimpaired health. 
His success and prosperity were assured. He sacrificed 
the income from his profession, abandoned his pleasant 
home, and separated his family, that he might engage in 
this important and perilous work. 

Immediately after the appointment of the commis- 
sioners the Board was organized, and Mr. Williams and 
Mr. Kelley were appointed acting commissioners. Pre- 
parations were soon made for putting under contract 
" the line on Licking summit." In the report made the 
10th of December, 1825, the Board refers to the com- 
mencement of the work as follows : 

" About to commence, in behalf of the people of the State, 
the construction of the second great national work of internal 
improvement in the United States, and recollecting the debt 
of gratitude which is due, for his able and effective services 
in the cause, to that distinguished individual, the acknowl- 
edged head of the policy which is so happily extending itself 
throughout our common country, and remembering, also, the 
deep interest which he has in all cases evinced, in the success 
of the efforts of Ohio, the commissioners felt it to be a mark 
of respect due, and that it would accord with the feelings of 
their fellow-citizens to invite Governor Clinton, of the State 
of New York, to be present at the important and interesting 
ceremony of commencing the work. They were highly grati- 
fied at his acceptance of the invitation, and with the prompt 
manner in which he encountered the difficulties of complying 
with their wishes. 

" On the fourth day of July, the Board had the satisfaction 
of witnessing the commencement of the work, in the presence 
of our patriotic Chief Magistrate, who had also been invited 
to be present on the occasion, and of Governor Clinton, to- 
gether with several citizens of New York, distinguished advo- 
cates of the policy, and a vast concourse of their fellow- 
citizens." 

76 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

A long portion of the line under Mr. Kelley's su- 
pervision ran through a wilderness or sparsely settled 
country, in relation to which it is said in the report of 
January, 1827: "During the months of July, August, 
and September, the work could not be prosecuted except 
at a great sacrifice of the health and life of the laborers, 
and was therefore suspended." It would be difficult to 
convey an adequate idea of the fatigue and exposure to 
which the acting commissioner was subject in the dis- 
charge of his duties. Appointments were always kept, 
though it often required that his days should be spent in 
storms and in bogs and miasma. 

While acting in behalf of the State, and exposing his 
health to secure her against loss or unnecessary expense, 
Mr. Kelley was equally careful and considerate of the 
rights of the laborers, whose " reward of their services " 
was secured not long after the commencement of the 
work. In the third report, the Board says : 

" The measures which have been taken by the acting com- 
missioners to secure to laborers on the canals the just reward 
of their services have produced a beneficial effect, particu- 
larly on these parts of the line which have been put under 
contract since the adoption of these measures. The right re- 
served by the acting commissioners, in the contract, of with- 
holding moneys from the contractor, and paying over to the 
laborer directly the sums due him for work, whenever a dis- 
position on the part of the contractor not to make punctual 
payments is evinced, has had the effect to introduce greater 
punctuality in the payment of laborers. 

" Still, however, instances occur in which all the exertions 
of the acting commissioners have failed to produce the de- 
sired effect. The neglect of laborers to use suitable exertions 
and to take the necessary measures to insure the payment of 

77 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

their wages, or even to inform the commissioner of a failure in 
this respect, until it is out of his power to coerce payment, 
together with the want of economy and bad management on 
the part of the contractor in some instances, are the principal 
causes of the existence of the evil; an evil which it is ex- 
tremely difficult, if not impossible, entirely to prevent." 

After five or six years of exposure and uninterrupted 
labor, Mr. Kelley's vigorous constitution yielded to their 
influence, and his health w T as so far impaired that the 
Legislature, in February, 1832, passed the following 
preamble and joint resolution : 

"Whereas, the health of Alfred Kelley, acting commis- 
sioner of the Ohio Canal, has been seriously impaired by his 
constant attention, for several years past, to his arduous duties 
as acting commissioner, so that he is now unequal to the labor 
of his station ; therefore, as a tribute of respect to a faithful 
public servant — 

"Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That 
Alfred Kelley, acting canal commissioner, be allowed leave 
of absence from his official duties until the first day of July 
next.'' 

Mr. Kelley did not avail himself of this offer, but, 
by care and prudence, was enabled to regain a little of 
his former health and continue to perform his official 
duties. 

During the year 1832 the two canals committed to 
the charge of the commissioners by the act of February 
4, 1825, were finished, "with the exception of the lower 
lock at Portsmouth, the southern terminus of the Ohio 
Canal, and the locks by which the Miami canal was to 
be connected with the Ohio River at Cincinnati." At 
this time, the health of Mr. Kelley had so declined that 

78 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

the commissioners held their meetings at his house in 
Columbus ; and he there, in January, 1833, prepared the 
report for the preceding year. 

In that report the construction of the canal is re- 
viewed — a short account of the levels, locks, aqueducts, 
culverts, feeders, reservoirs, is given ; and, in an ap- 
pendix, a copy of the rules and specifications, adopted 
for the various kinds of work, is furnished. Being also 
desirous of making a full financial exhibit of the work 
on the Ohio Canal, the estimated and actual cost are 
carefully compared. No such comparison could be made 
in regard to the Miami Canal, as the estimate was made 
of the entire line, from Cincinnati to the Maumee River, 
and no separate estimate was made of its cost from Cin- 
cinnati to Dayton. 

The cost of the Ohio Canal, as estimated in the report 
of 1825, was 83,081,880.83. 

There was actually disbursed on it, including the 
amount then due to contractors — the estimated cost of 
finishing the lower lock at Portsmouth, and the expense 
of engineering and repairs, §4, 224,539. 64. 

A large portion of this excess of the cost over the es- 
timate is accounted for in detail, with a full explanation 
of each item, and is then aggregated as follows : 

" 1. Extension of the canal — new branches, 
feeders, regulators, and other new works, 
as previously stated, . . . $218,675 76 

2. Modifications of the plan, as stated, . 120,711 67 

3. Changes of location to sustain local inter- 

ests, . 31,274 21 

79 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

4. Additional embankment, . . $150,000 00 

5. Filling and securing canal after accept- 

ance from contractors, . . . 100,000 00 
26. Ordinary repairs from Julv, 1827, to De- 
cember 1, 1832, . . . . 55,000 00 



$675,711 64" 



This sum, deducted from the actual cost, leaves, as the 
excess of the cost over the estimate, $487,947.17. 

An additional statement is then made in the report, as 
follows : 

''This excess is in part attributable to the influence which 
the making of the canal has had on the commercial and agri- 
cultural prosperity of the State. As different portions of the 
canal, from time to time, have been opened for navigation, a 
channel has been presented to the inhabitants of the interior 
for the cheap and convenient transportation to market of the 
products of their farms, their forests, and their mines. 
Labor has consequently yielded a greater profit, and both 
provisions and wages have risen in value. This state of 
things has necessarily increased the expense of constructing 
the canal, and yet it has operated beneficially to the people of 
the State. For, while the cost of the canal has been en- 
hanced, the excess has been paid to them for their labor and 
provisions, and the surplus sent abroad for sale has been at 
the same time increased' in value, in consequence of the di- 
minished expense of transporting it to market. 

"The increased amount of money which has been thrown 
into circulation by the heavy disbursements on the public 
works has also had an effect to raise the price both of labor 
and provisions. 

"The extensive works of internal improvements which 
have been prosecuted with so much energy in the adjoining 
States, particularly in Pennsylvania, and by the national gov- 
ernment in our own State, have drawn off a great number of 
mechanics and common laborers, who otherwise would have 
sought employment on our canal, and have consequently en- 
hanced the price of labor, the cost of the canal, and at the 
same time have retarded its completion. 

80 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

"The frequent abandonment of jobs by contractors, in 
some cases from dishonest motives, but much more frequently 
from errors in judgment as to the value of work, or as to 
their owu skill and ability to perform it with economy, leading 
them to contract at prices below those at which they could 
complete it without serious losses, produced the necessity of 
frequent re-letting at rates above the actual value of the work. 
This consequence resulted from the limited time in which the 
public interest required the completion of these jobs at the 
time of their being re-let, and the scarcity and high price of 
labor attendant upon the extraordinary exertions necessary to 
accomplish a large amount of work in a short period. 

" The prices fixed on the work of various kinds in the orig- 
inal estimates were generally sufficient to cover the expense of 
its execution, but the quantities were in many, indeed in 
most, cases materially deficient ; and experience has shown 
that a far greater amount of work was necessary even to 
finish the canal on the plan originally designed than was then 
estimated. 

" In relation to this subject, it should be observed, that the 
surveys on which the first estimates of cost were formed were 
made in a much more hasty and consequently less perfect 
manner than would have been required to serve as a basis of 
correctly estimating quantities, or than would have been done 
had more time been given. 

" During the season in which these surveys were principally* 
made, upward of six hundred miles of canal lines were 
located by two parties. Under these circumstances, minute 
examinations and surveys could not be expected. They were 
in fact mostly confined to ascertaining the elevations and de- 
pressions of the surface on a longitudinal line along the center 
of the ground proposed to be occupied by the canal ; and even 
on this line the smaller irregularities of the surface were not 
ascertained. The result of forming an estimate from such 
imperfect surveys was that the quantities of earth necessary 
to be removed in order to construct the canal were much 
underrated, particularly on uneven and sideling grounds. In 
a hasty estimate, predicated on such imperfect surveys, many 
structures of various kinds, necessary to render a canal sub- 
stantial and convenient, were either entirely omitted, or 
small and cheap works were supposed to be sufficient where 
subsequent examination has shown that much larger and 
more expensive structures were necessary. It is, however, 

6 81 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

probable that much of this additional cost would have been 
covered by the very liberal prices generally affixed, in the 
first estimates, to the work, had the prices of labor and pro- 
visions remained as they then were. But this state of things, 
owing to the causes previously noticed, did not continue to 
exist/' 

No canal in this country or in Europe of equal length 
had been constructed at as small a cost per mile, or at so 
small an advance on the original estimate, if it can be 
fairly claimed that the cost of the Ohio Canal was not 
within that estimate. 

The predicted results of this great enterprise were 
more than realized ; and its success exhibits extraordi- 
nary sagacity and forecast on the part of its advocates, 
especially when the condition of the State in 1825 is 
considered. In 1832, the tolls amounted to $123,794.21. 
They increased rapidly each year, and in 1837 amounted 
to $355,769.50. 

The report of 1832 also contains a table exhibiting the 
different articles transported on the canals, with the 
amount, price, and value of each, and the " aggregate 
saving in expense of transportation " on both canals is 
shown to be $312,156.87. This amount was increased 
every year in proportion to the increase of transporta- 
tion. 

The general effect produced upon the State can not be 
better illustrated than by a comparison of the appraised 
value of real estate for the purpose of taxation, at dif- 
ferent periods. 

82 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

Prior to 1826, lands were assessed for taxation by the 
acre, and not according to their value. 

In 1826, the realty of the State was valued at 
§15,946,840. 

In 1835, it was valued at §75,760,797. 

In 1841, it was valued at $100,851,837. 

This extraordinary increase was caused by the en- 
hanced value of farming products ; which in 1832 were 
brought, by the canals, within the reach and influence 
of the New York and southern markets. 

In a report of Joseph S. Lake and N. H. Swayne, as 
Canal Fund Commissioners, on the 20th of January, 
1842, they refer to this subject as follows : 

" The Ohio Canal has again netted exceeding six per cent 
upon its cost. ... It should be constantly borne in mind,, 
however, that the revenue derived, from such works, however 
important to the public treasury, is a very small part of the 
benefits they confer. The rapid growth of Ohio, in popula- 
tion and resources, since the census of 1830, must be attrib- 
uted mainly to this cause. There is every reason to anticipate 
the like growth for some years to come." 

Mr, Kelley continued to discharge the duties of acting 
commissioner until 1834, when he addressed the follow- 
ing communication to the Board : 

"Columbus, 24th Janhj, 1834. 
11 To the Board of Canal Commissioners: 
1 ' Gentlemen : 
" I deem it proper to inform you that I have concluded to 
resign the appointment, which I now hold from the board, of 
acting commissioner, as early as the first day of March next ; 
and I make this communication, at this time, that the board 

83 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

may have an opportunity to make the necessary arrangements 
for supplying the place. 

" Had I consulted my own inclinatious, or the wishes of my 
family only, I should have taken this course some years ago. 
I was, however, unwilling to abandon a trust which I had 
undertaken to perform, particularly when the discouraging 
circumstances and serious difficulties with which we were sur- 
rounded might induce the belief that I was impelled to do 
so by despairing of ultimate success. The opinion expressed 
by the board that the knowledge which I have derived from 
personal observation and experience was important to a suc- 
cessful prosecution of the work operated as a further induce- 
ment to continue in the station assigned me. 

"As the canals are now so nearly finished, and as the suc- 
cessful execution of the public works in which we have been 
engaged, their widely extended benefits and increasing profits, 
have settled public opinion in their favor, I can now retire 
from active service without discredit to my motives, or injury 
to the public. 

"I am more strongly impelled to take this step by a con- 
viction that an efficient superintendence of the Ohio Canal re- 
quires the undivided attention of an acting commissioner, 
and demands the employment of a much larger portion of his 
time on the line than I can employ in that manner, with due 
regard for my health, impaired as it has been by continual 
exposure and unremitted exertions for seven or eight succes- 
sive years. 

"In conclusion, permit me to express my grateful sense 
of the manner in which I have been sustained by the board 
in the performance of my duties, and of the confidence which 
they have placed in me during the time I have acted as their 
agent. 

" With sentiments of the most sincere regard, 

" I am, gentlemen, your humble serv't, 

"Alfred Kelley." 

Mr. Kelley remained in the Board, as commissioner 
only, after the time specified in the preceding communi- 
cation. Having resigned as acting commissioner, it was 
due to him and the State that his accounts should be 
examined and reported upon. In pursuance of this ob- 

84 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

ligation on the part of the State, the House of Repre- 
sentatives of the next Legislature, on the 7th of March, 
1835, passed a resolution providing for the examination 
of the " books, vouchers, and accounts," and " all the 
official transactions of the Board of Canal Commission- 
ers of this State, and also of the Canal Fund Commis- 
sioners, from the commencement of our canal improve- 
ment up to the present time." In addition to the ordi- 
nary provisions, the resolution conferred the extraordi- 
nary power " to send for persons and papers." 

Mr. Kelley immediately prepared the following paper, 
which was signed by all the members of the Board then 
in Columbus, and delivered to the House on the 9th 
of March ; and in regard to which one of the Board, Mr. 
Samuel Forrer, in calling the attention of the writer to 
it, says : " Its character shows his manner of meeting 
issues of the kind involved in the controversy ; and the 
result shows what an indomitable will in defense of jus- 
tice may effect, even on a legislative body:" 

"To the Honorable the Mouse of Representatives: 

" The undersigned, members of the Board of Canal Com- 
missioners (being all the members of the Board now in Co- 
lumbus), have learned with much surprise that the House 
have passed a resolution requiring the appointment of a com- 
mittee to examine the accounts, vouchers, conduct and pro- 
ceedings of the Canal Commissioners and of the Commission- 
ers of the Canal Fund, ivith power to send for persons and 
papers. 

" The undersigned believe that it is not in accordance 
with parliamentary and legislative usages to clothe com- 
mittees with extraordinary power, unless the Legislature, or the 
branch from which such powers may emanate, have strong pre- 
sumptive evidence that some misdemeanor or some malfeasance 

85 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

in office has occurred the investigation of which requires the 
examination of witnesses and papers that can ouly be ob- 
tained by compulsory process. If this view of legislative 
usages be correct, it must be evident that the passage of the 
resolution in question carries with it the declaration that 
the House have strong reasons to believe there has been some 
gross malfeasance practiced by the agents of the State whose 
official conduct it is proposed to investigate, or that some 
parts of the accounts or vouchers, or evidence of some of 
their proceedings, will be improperly withheld from the in- 
spection of the committee. 

"Although the members of the House may individually 
understand, from declarations made on the floor, that no such 
imputations are intended, a little reflection will satisfy the 
House that the community at large, who have not heard 
these declarations of members, must judge of the subject 
from the tenor of the resolution itself when construed accord- 
ing to the established usages of legislative bodies ; and that 
the character of the agents whose conduct is to be investi- 
gated must suffer these implied imputations until a report 
can be made at the next annual session of the General As- 
sem bly. 

" Had the resolution in question received the sanction of 
both branches of the General Assembly, the undersigned 
could have no hesitation as to the proper course to be pur- 
sued. They could not for a moment consent to hold a trust, 
after the representatives of the people had expressed, even 
by implication, doubts as to their being worthy of confidence. 
How far a similar course is required, when but one branch 
of the General Assembly has adopted a measure which, ac- 
cording to the ordinary rules of construing such proceedings, 
implies a want of confidence in the integrity of agents who 
have been appointed by the joint act of both branches, pre- 
sents a more difficult question. 

"Under existing circumstances, the undersigned deem it a 
duty which they owe to themselves, as well as to those who 
have acted with them, and who are now absent, to the pub- 
lic and to the character of the State, respectfully but earn- 
estly to solicit an unequivocal expression of the House, in 
relation to the construction of that part of the resolution 
which, as it now stands, the undersigned believe may and 
will, by many, be construed to imply suspicion of their official 
integrity. An explicit declaration of the House, either one 

86 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

way or the other, on this point, will at once relieve the un- 
dersigned from their present embarrassment, and determine 
them as to the proper course for them to pursue. 

"The undersigned, for themselves and in behalf of their 
absent colleagues, beg to be distinctly understood as not wish- 
ing to avoid a full and rigid scrutiny of their accounts and 
official conduct. They indignantly repel every intimation of 
a desire on their part to shrink from an investigation of their 
proceedings. They earnestly wish, and respectfully demand, 
a full, minute, and rigid investigation of all their accounts, 
vouchers, and whole official conduct. But at the same time, 
they solemnly, but respectfully, remonstrate against the en- 
tering upon the journals of the House, and publishing to the 
world, of a document which implies the possession of strong 
presumptive evidence of fraud or official misconduct, unless 
the House have such evidence in their possession, or unless 
some member shall, upon his official responsibility, declare 
that he has good reason to believe that such fraud or miscon- 
duct has actually occurred. 

"The constitution and laws of our State secure from search 
the persons, houses, papers, and possessions of private citi- 
zens, without, at least, probable evidence of crime. So care- 
ful were the framers of our constitution and laws to prevent 
a wanton invasion of the character or property of our citizens ; 
and we are reluctant to believe that a branch of the General 
Assembly will cast an imputation upon the character of pub- 
lic officers, who have a right to demand protection at their 
hands, hy a deliberate public act, unless there are, at leastj 
strong reasons to suspect official misconduct. 

"The laws of the State require that the accounts and 
vouchers, both of the canal commissioners, and commissioners 
of the canal fund, shall be filed in the Auditor's office, and 
that they shall, from time to time, report their official pro- 
ceedings to the General Assembly. These requisitions of law 
have been complied with, and it is well known that these ac- 
counts and vouchers have long been, and are now, in the 
office of the Auditor, recorded in books prepared for that 
purpose, and subject to the control of the General Assembly 
and to the inspection of its committees. The proceedings of 
the Board of Canal Commissioners are recorded, and subject 
to the same control and inspection. The accounts of both 
boards have been uniformly closed for each year in time for 
the examination of the committee of either or both branches 

87 



Alfred Kelley ; Ids Life and Work. 

of the Legislature, and, previously to the last session, have 
uniformly been examined by the committees of both Houses. 
It is not the fault of the commissioners that this service has 
not since been performed ; the accounts have been prepared 
in season, and the committee, or members thereof, notified 
that they were in readiness to be submitted. 

"The amount of money which has come into the hands of 
the canal commissioners, or the commissioners of the fund, 
can be readily ascertained ; and they are bound to account, 
and that too in a satisfactory manner, for its disbursement. 
If they fail to do so, they will be obnoxious to censure. But 
until there is some evidence of such failure, or of official mis- 
conduct, the undersigned can not, without remonstrating 
against its injustice, submit to even an implied aspersion of 
their characters. 

"Respectfully submitted by 

John Johnston, 
Alfred Kelley, 
Samuel Forrer, 

" Columbus, March 7, 1835." Leander Ransom." 

On Monday, the 9th of March, the Senate passed the 
following : 

"Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That 
Gustavus Swan, Noah H. Swayne, and P. B. Wilcox be, and 
they are hereby, appointed a committee to examine the books 
and accounts of the canal commissioners and of the canal 
fund commissioners, and that the said committee report their 
proceedings and the result of their examination to the next 
General Assembly." 

This resolution, respectful in its terms, and not implying 
any thing offensive, was sent to the House, and its adop- 
tion was the first act of that body, after the reading of 
the communication of the canal commissioners. 

The three persons appointed as a committee, on ac- 
count of the neglect of the officers of the Legislature, 
or for some other reason, were not officially notified of 

88 






Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

the passage of the resolution, and nothing was done to- 
ward an investigation. 

On the sixth of January, 1836, the Board of Canal 
Commissioners made their last report, and, at its close, 
this subject is thus referred to : 

" The canals authorized to be made by the act of the 4th 
of February, 1825, " for the internal improvement of the 
State of Ohio by navigable canals," having been completed, 
and the agents of the State, upon whom devolved the imme- 
diate disbursements of the moneys expended in these works, 
having resigned their trusts and rendered their accounts, it is 
due to the citizens of the State that they be officially in- 
formed how their funds have been expended and accounted 
for, and whether their agents have faithfully and discreetly 
executed the important duties and powers conferred on them 
by law. 

"It is also due to these agents that their accounts for the 
disbursement of the large sums which have passed through 
their hands shall be fully investigated and finally settled ; and 
that the manner in which they have executed their trusts, 
generally, shall be inquired into, and approved or disap- 
proved, according to its merits, by a committee of the Gen- 
eral Assembly, or other persons, in whom both the people and 
their representatives will have full confidence. 

"Books, vouchers, and other papers are liable to destruc- 
tion or loss, J . ." . witnesses of important transactions are 
liable to death, and still more to a failure in their memory of 
past events ; and it is obvious, under these circumstances, 
that the character of the agents in whom important discre- 
tionary powers have been vested, and through whose bauds 
millions of public money have passed, may suffer from the 
misrepresentations of those who are misinformed or preju- 
diced, however correct the conduct of the agents may have 
been." 

In pursuance of this appeal, the General Assembly, in 
March, appointed a committee of three to examine and 
report upon the accounts and vouchers of the canal com- 

89 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

missioners and canal fund commissioners, and also au- 
thorized the Governor to fill vacancies occasioned by de- 
clination or otherwise. There were declinations and ap- 
pointments by the Governor, and the committee was 
finally composed of three political adversaries of Mr. 
Kelley, and as violent partisans as could have been se- 
lected in the State. That committee, in October, made 
a report to the Governor, of which the following is a 
part : 

" The Board of Commissioners, appointed ' to examine the 
books and vouchers of the canal commissioners, also the books 
and vouchers of the canal fund commissioners, and to audit 
and adjust the same,' in obedience to certain joint resolutions 
of the General Assembly of Ohio, passed March 14, 1836, 
hereby and herein report to the Governor of the State the 
result of such examination as they have been able to make, 
which is only part of the duty required of them. 

"We have also examined the accounts of the acting canal 
commissioners, with the vouchers connected therewith, and 
find them substantially correct ; in other words, we find no 
account of money disbursed by them which has not been 
honestly accounted for, either as agents for contracts, or for 
contingent and incidental expenses for the construction of the 
Ohio canals. Respectfully submitted, 

Elijah Hayward, 
Wm. B. Van Hook, 
M. Z. Kreider, 

Committee." 

During the construction of the Ohio Canal, every part 
of the work was subjected to Mr. Kelley's supervision, 
and contractors soon learned that no fraud or artifice 
could escape his vigilance, and that they could not avoid 
the faithful performance of their agreements. He was in- 

90 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

flexibly true to the interests of the State. While acting 
for her, he did not consider that he had a right to depart 
from the contracts in behalf of a contractor or the State. 
The State could yield its rights, and be generous with its 
money, but the agent had no such authority. 

The advantage which the State derived from having such 
an agent was soon discovered. The long line of canal, 
stretching for three hundred and thirty-three miles from 
the lake to the river, was constructed with the same care, 
prudence, and economy that are observed in the best man- 
aged private enterprises. The rights of the State were 
protected : none of her money was squandered, or lost 
by inattention, carelessness, or negligence ; but all which 
passed through the hands of the commissioners was rep- 
resented by the best quality of work. 

The honest contractors, and most of them were such, 
were attached to Mr. Kelley. His engineers admired 
and revered him. One of them informed the writer of 
this, that the corps to which he belonged looked for- 
ward with much interest to his frequent examinations of 
the work, as he generally spent the night with them, and 
the evening was passed in the discussion of matters of 
science connected with their business, or historic or po- 
lite literature, from which they derived lasting benefit. 
He was to them not only an employer, but a friend, who 
was interested in their success and improvement. 

Each year a report, was prepared containing a full and 
detailed statement of what had been done during the 
preceding twelve months. These reports are models of 

• 91 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

their kind. Their frankness and clearness disarmed op- 
position, except in one or two instances in which the pre- 
judice of an enemy ran away with his judgment, and 
whose complaints and fault finding were met and silenced 
by a little forcible truth. 

On one occasion, when a member, who had for many 
years exhibited unrelenting hostility to Mr. Kelley, was 
addressing the House in relation to the construction of a 
portion of the canal near Cleveland, and making state- 
ments in regard to it which were untrue, Mr. Kelley hap- 
pened to be sitting some distance from and in front of 
him, and being attracted by his bitterness and errors, 
turned toward him, and looking steadily at him with an 
expression of the most forcible and direct denial of his 
assertions, the member begun to qualify, then explain, 
then retract, and finally sat down. 

During the construction of the canals, and after they 
were finished, agriculture and manufactures rapidly in- 
creased, and population multiplied. On this, her first 
great w T ork, as a necessary foundation, have been built up 
that wealth and influence which have given to Ohio a 
place among the foremost of the American States. The 
improvements which have followed were all dependent 
upon this. 

The State derived all the benefit, but to accomplish it, 
Mr. Kelley submitted to extraordinary sacrifices. He 
retired from office possessed only t of the property he 
owned when he accepted it. The commissioners did not 
consider it their privilege or right to take advantage of 

92 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

their positions, as agents for the State, and thus add to 
their personal fortunes. They refrained even from the 
appearance of it. Mr. Kelley desired a farm, then cov- 
ered with forest, and much benefited by the location of 
the Columbus feeder, but would not enter into any nego- 
tiations for it until the canal was completed. The pur- 
chase was then made, and the farm is now owned by a 
member of his family. He retired also with a constitu- 
tion permanently impaired by exposure, fatigue, and ex- 
cessive labor, in the discharge of his official duties. He 
devoted more than ten years to this, all things consid- 
ered, the greatest enterprise of the State. And so long 
as the waters of Lake Erie and the Ohio River are con- 
nected, and even if the canal be superseded by other im- 
provements, so long as its history is preserved, the name 
of Alfred Kelley will be held in grateful remembrance. 

93 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

POLITICAL SERVICES. 

Removal to Columbus. — Election to the Legislature in 1836. — 
Services. — Re-election in 1837. — The State Debt. — Chairman of the 
Finance Committee. — Imprisonment for debt abolished. — Polit- 
cal corruption of the times. — Call for a Whig General Conven- 
tion. — Picturesque scenes. — Entertaining delegates. 



In October, 1830, Mr. Kelley removed with his family 
to Columbus, where he resided the remainder of his life. 
In 1836 he was elected to represent Franklin County in 
the Legislature. He was, as such representative, prin- 
cipally engaged in opposing injudicious legislation, and 
in endeavoring to protect the State, as far as practicable, 
against engaging in works of doubtful utility and incur- 
ring pecuniary loss. 

During the session he offered a resolution directing 
the Committee on Schools and School Lands to introduce 
a bill providing for the appointment of a State School 
Commissioner and prescribing his duties. The resolu- 
tion was adopted and a bill introduced which became a 
law, under which the management of our public schools 
was made a part of the State government, and was sys- 
temized and rendered efficient. 

It will be remembered that, in the winter of 1819-20, 
Mr. Kelley introduced a bill to " abolish imprisonment 
for debt." He was in advance of public sentiment, and 

94 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

the measure, though just and humane, failed to become a 
law. It had had no advocates in the meantime, and slept 
until this session, a period of seventeen years, when he 
introduced it again. Its passage was contested, and it 
finally went over to the next Legislature as a part of the 
unfinished business. 

In 1837 Mr. Kelley and Robert Neil were elected to 
represent the county of Franklin in the Legislature. 
The service he rendered to the State, at this session also, 
consisted mainly in endeavoring to prevent injurious leg- 
islation and an increase of the public debt. He made a 
special effort to prevent abuses which had grown up 
under a law of the previous year, authorizing a loan of 
the credit of the State to railroads, canals, and turnpikes. 
The law contained provisions which, if they had been en- 
forced by the officers intrusted with its administration, 
would have effectually protected the State against any 
loss. These provisions were neglected, and companies 
wrongfully obtained from the State large sums of money. 
During the pendency of a bill which was calculated to 
prevent frauds on the part of the officers and companies, 
Mr. Kelley said : 

u He believed, in a pecuniary point of view, the State was 
trembling on the brink of ruin. If the law was not repealed 
or modified, bankruptcy would ensue. Under the law, in one 
year, the State has been made liable for a million and a quar- 
ter of dollars, and preparations were in progress for an in- 
crease of three, four, or five millions. There were no limits. 
. . . We were on the brink of a precipice, and unless we 
acted speedily, we were entirely lost." 

95 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

His warning was not heeded, and the history of the 
State finances in 1841-2, and a report made in 1845 by 
a commission appointed for that purpose, establish, by 
conclusive evidence, the literal truth of his averments. 

Near the close of the session, as chairman of the 
finance committee, he made an important report, in which, 
he grouped together the facts connected with the State 
debt, its rapid increase, and the deficiency in the rev- 
enue, and demonstrated that when the accounts were 
made clearly intelligible a part of the interest had been 
paid by borrowing money from other funds. Although 
these facts were forcibly presented, the Legislature did 
not appreciate them to such an extent as to adopt any 
decided measures to reduce expenditures or increase the 
revenue. He also directed the attention of the Legisla- 
ture to the imperfect mode of keeping the public ac- 
counts, the pernicious consequences of which were fully 
developed a few years later. 

At this session Mr. Kelley's purpose, long enter- 
tained and persistently urged while he was a member, of 
abolishing imprisonment for debt, was accomplished ; and 
from that time forward no honest debtor has been im- 
prisoned for inability to pay his creditors. This humane 
act encountered opposition and adverse votes at this late 
period. Reforms are of slow growth, and require much 
patience and persistence for their accomplishment. 

At this time Martin Van Buren was President. Un- 
der his administration, and under that of his predecessor, 

96 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

though both were professedly reformers, there was a 
great loss of public money, and the military aphorism — 
"to the victors belong the spoils" — was announced, by 
one of their partisans in the Senate, as applicable to the 
result of an election, and was acted upon by them as a 
political principle. An election was thus converted into 
a mere scramble for office and the control of the public 
funds, and this principle — or want of principle — cor- 
rupted every one who adopted it. At this stage of our 
political history this doctrine was odious to a majority 
of the people ; and, although the two administrations 
just mentioned had maintained their ascendancy mainly 
by paying for partisan services with the emoluments of 
office, still the public had not become so demoralized and 
corrupted by it as not to appreciate its wickedness, to a 
degree at least. Many disclosures were made which 
were startling, and near the close of the year 1839* the 
public mind became very much excited. 

The Whig convention of Ohio had been held gener- 
ally, if not uniformly, on the 22d of February, and in 
the city of Columbus. And although, at that season, the 
weather was usually inclement, and the roads almost im- 
passable, still a convention could be held without much 
inconvenience, if composed of a limited number of dele- 
gates. The Legislature and the Supreme Court were in 
session at that time, and those attending them generally 
acted also as such delegates. This year, however, the 
disclosures at Washington were so alarming that the 
pressure was very strong for a general convention ; and 
7 . 97 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

the State Central Committee, in pursuance of public sen- 
timent, issued a call written by Mr. Kelley, who was its 
chairman, and which contains the following moving 
appeal : 

" Whatever may have been the individual opinions of the 
State Central Committee as to the propriety of calling to- 
gether numerous delegations from the several counties, at a 
season of the year usually cold and inclement, they considered 
it their duty not to dictate, hut to obey, the public voice. 
To the true friends of their country, to the descendants of 
those patriots of the revolution who, unclad and unshod, 
braved the winter storms of 1780, marking the line of the 
march with the blood of their lacerated feet, for whom the 
canopy of heaven formed a tent, the frozen earth a bed, and 
the fleecy snow their only covering — to the children of such 
fathers, we say, ' Come up once more to the rescue of your 
country, rally once more under the standard of the veteran 
who so often in days by-gone led his troops to victory, and 
with him at your head, march forward to the reform of the 
reformers — to despoil the spoilers — to rescue the ark of the 
Constitution, and save your beloved country.'" 

This call was effectual, and on the 22d of February, 
1840, there was gathered in the capital of Ohio the most 
enthusiastic and imposing political convention which had 
been held in the country since the organization of the 
government. In the winter, and in a rainy season, when 
the roads were almost impassable, the people of the State 
in masses thronged toward the capital. From the re- 
mote parts of the State the delegates were five or six 
days on the way. In the North-west, Fort Meigs was 
rebuilt in miniature and brought down on a wagon. 
From Cleveland a full-rigged brig, and from the West a 
small cabin, were conveyed in the same mode. The de- 

98 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

vices illustrative of the life of General Harrison were 
innumerable. The editor of a Washington paper referred 
to the General as better fitted for a cabin with a barrel 
of hard cider than for President and the White 
House, which made the cabin and the cider barrel very 
prominent at the meeting and during the subsequent 
canvass. 

This convention was composed of all classes. Old 
and young, professional men, business men, farmers, me- 
chanics, and laborers, all vied with each other in showing 
respect to General Harrison, who " held the offices but 
never took the spoils." During the convention enough 
campaign songs were composed to make a small volume,, 
which was circulated throughout the country. 

About sixty of the Cleveland delegates were enter- 
tained at Mr. Kelley's house. There was no difficulty in 
furnishing meals, but to lodge them required some con- 
trivance. One of his daughters suggested, as a solution 
of the difficulty, that a feather bed should be placed in 
the middle of a carpeted library and used as a pillow by 
the occupants, whose feet would point outward from it as 
a center. A large number were thus accommodated, so 
that when lying down they resembled a star. 

The inhabitants of the city all joined in extending 
hospitality to the strangers, and the streets were pa- 
trolled at night, that no one might fail to be accommo- 
dated. 

The platform, consisting of a series of resolutions, the 
most material portion of which Mr. Kelley prepared in 

99 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

advance, formed the basis of the proceedings of all the 
subsequent conventions held in other States. The result 
of the election, in the fall, was in accordance with this 
most auspicious opening of the campaign. 

100 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER IX. 

MR. KELLEY AS A FINANCIER. 

Financial distrust in 1840. — Mr. Kelley appointed Canal Fund 
Commissioner. — The State embarrassed. — Borrowing money in 
England. — Mr. Kelley's course. — The honor of the State at 
stake. — Danger of repudiation. — A crisis. — Mr. Kelley's courage 
and skill. 



In the fall of 1840 Thomas Corwin was elected Gov- 
ernor of Ohio. The State and the Nation were then 
passing through a period of financial embarrassment 
equal to any in the previous history of either. The 
moneyed institutions, the currency, and the State and 
National credit were distrusted ; and, although there was 
much, and perhaps an abundance of money, few were 
willing or courageous enough to invest in State, National, 
or individual securities. 

This general condition of the finances and business of 
the country had a specific effect upon Ohio. The extra- 
ordinary success of its two original canals naturally cre- 
ated a desire for similar improvements in other parts of 
the State. And during the inflation which preceded the 
collapse referred to, such improvements were adopted 
and the work on them commenced. When the crash 
came the State was necessarily embarrassed. It was 
difficult to sell its bonds, and the Commissioners of the 
Canal Fund, in their struggles to preserve the credit of 

101 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

the State, were constrained to borrow from the interest 
fund of the original canals, and from other public funds, 
to pay present and pressing liabilities. In the midst of 
this general 'distrust and embarrassment, and on the 
30th of March, 1841, Mr. Kelley was appointed by the 
Governor one of the Canal Fund Commissioners, in the 
place of Gustavus Swan, who then resigned. 

As we are now about to enter upon one of the most 
interesting periods in the history of Ohio, and one 
of the most important acts of Mr. Kelley's life, it is not 
best to rely upon general statements alone as to the con- 
dition of the State, and the circumstances surrounding 
him, at the time, when there are public and other docu- 
ments which afford abundant evidence on the subject. 
The reports of the Board immediately preceding exhibit 
clearly the unsettled state of the money markets at home 
and abroad. 

In January, 1840, Joseph S. Lake and Daniel Kil- 
gore, in a report, state that in July of the previous 
year one of their number by order of the Board went to 
Eagland, "to negotiate the sale of State stocks;" that 
" all efforts at home to raise money " had proved inef- 
fectual ; and " as the last alternative " the Board consid- 
ered it " their duty to try a foreign market rather than 
jeopardize the interests and credit of the State by non- 
payment to the contractors on the several public works." 

The commissioner found American securities " much 
depressed," and he concealed his mission until Oc- 
tober when he was able to arrange a loan of 30,000 

102 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

pounds — secured by the pledge of unrestricted stock. 
With the proceeds of this loan, and by a transfer to the 
interest fund, " the commissioner's were enabled to meet 
the total interest due to stockholders in New York on 
the first of January, 1840, thereby fully sustaining the 
high character and credit of the State." On the 5th of 
January, 1841, the commissioners, Joseph S. Lake, Gr. 
Swan, and X. H. Swayne, in their report, say : 

" Some disappointment has also been experienced, not only 
in the collection of balances due the State, but in the sale of 
stocks in Europe and at home. The unsettled condition of 
affairs in Europe, reacting upon that of Atlantic cities in 
our own country, has co-operated with the confusion in the 
currency of our own and the neighboring States to embarrass 
credit, and to render capitalists, every-where, cautious in 
seeking permaneut investments. 

"The commissioners take leave most respectfully to suggest 
that under the present limitations it is extremely doubtful 
whether the necessary means for the completion of the public 
works now in progress can be obtained either at home or 
abroad 

" It would be unsafe to rely upon sales of six per cent 
stocks at par to meet the expenses of the public works. 
There is at present no market, within the knowledge of the 
commissioners, where an amount could thus be sold approxi- 
mating that necessary for their completion." 

On March 2, 1841, the commissioners say : 

" AVe are satisfied that stocks to an amount sufficient to 
meet the public exigencies during the present year cannot be 
sold without great sacrifices. 

" The prospect of further sales of stock, to any considerable 
amount upon reasonable terms, seems to be at an end. The 
condition of the money market at home and abroad, the un- 
settled state of things in Europe, the amount of American 
securities in the market, the coudition of the banking insti- 
tutions of the country, and the continued action in the public 

103 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

mind to a considerable extent in regard to them, all forbid 
the hope that this prospect will be materially better within 
the present season, or indeed subsequently, until the existing 
state of things shall have yielded to those influences which, 
however favorable other circumstances, time is indispensable 
to brinir about." 



It thus appearing to be impossible to procure money 
by the sale of stocks in Europe or our Eastern market, 
and the necessities of the State being such as to forbid 
delay, at the suggestion of Mr. Kelley a circular was ad- 
dressed on the 3d of April to each of the Ohio banks, 
inviting propositions for the purchase of permanent 
stock, and if that should be declined, for temporary 
loans. No favorable replies were received except from 
the Franklin Bank of Columbus and the Bank of Chilli- 
cothe. In pursuance of these replies a loan of $500,000 
was obtained from the Franklin Bank on the first day 
of April, and on the 19th of April a loan of $581,000 
from the Chillicothe Bank ; each loan was made at six 
per cent interest, with the interest payable at the State 
treasury and the principal in New York. With the 
amounts thus obtained the State was able to meet its 
accrued liabilities upon the public works and its July 
interest. 

The demands from contractors and other sources were 
continually arising, and were a continual drain upon the 
entire canal fund ; so that at the end of the fiscal year, 
November 15, 1841, the " balance in treasurer's hands " 
was $1,393.33J. The interest due on the first of Janu- 
ary, 1842, was over $400,000; and near that time tem- 

104 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work, 

porary loans matured, amounting to $300,000. Between 
the loth of November and the 1st of January, additional 
funds were received, but there was a very large defi- 
ciency, to be supplied by borrowing or the sale of 
stocks. 

At this crisis, and a considerable time before the 1st 
of January,- Mr. Kelley was in New York for the pur- 
pose of paying these liabilities. The credit and honor 
of the State depended upon his success. In addition to 
what has been hereinbefore stated, it is necessary, in 
order to appreciate his surroundings, to- recall the fact 
that " several of the States, including some of the old- 
est, failed to pay the interest on their public debts, and 
the General Government itself found it impossible to 
raise money to meet the pressing demands on its treas- 
ury," and the State of Mississippi had repudiated a por- 
tion of her debt. These facts affected the market gen- 
erally . 

On the 10th of December Colonel N. H. Swayne, 
then one of the commissioners, writing from Columbus, 
says : 

"I am greatly alarmed by what you say in regard to the 
prospect of raising means to pay our interest. Stocks dull at 
75 ! The London agents forbidden to make advances ! The 
banks pressing for the payment of their temporary loans ! 
Money tight beyond example, panic and paralysis universally 
prevalent, every thing covered with gloom and despondency, 
and tending downward to the lowest point. 

"It is a crisis calculated to quail the stoutest heart." 

Above all this there was a special influence brought 

105 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

to bear upon this State which tended to impair its credit 
and defeat every effort of its officers. The Legislature 
assembled on the first Monday in December, and from 
the commencement of the session there was an open and 
avowed purpose, on the part of many members, to de- 
stroy all the banking institutions of the State, and to 
repudiate a portion, at least, of the State debt. One of 
the leading papers at the capital was in sympathy with 
this purpose. The disgraceful proposition of repudia- 
tion was gaining such favor, and becoming so dangerous, 
that the Speaker of the House, (the Hon. Rufus P. 
Spalding), on the 21st of December, came down from 
his desk and offered the following preamble and resolu- 
tions : 

"Whereas, an opinion has become prevalent that the inde- 
pendent States of the Union will, at some future period, re- 
pudiate the payment of the debts by them respectively con- 
tracted with capitalists, both in Europe and America; and 
whereas, such an opinion is at variance with every principle 
of patriotism, morality, and even of common honesty: There- 
fore, 

"Be it resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, 
That a just sense of right, independent of the high claims of 
her citizens to a character distinguished for honor and integ- 
rity, should effectually preclude our great State from enter- 
taining the crude notion of absolving herself from the claims 
of her creditors by the mere exertion of sovereign power. 

Resolved, as the sense of this General Assembly, that the 
citizens of Ohio respect the sanctity of their engagements, 
whether of a public or private nature, and will at all times 
be found willing to pay the principal and interest of all debts 
by their State Government fairly and lawfully contracted." 

The preamble and resolutions were adopted by the 
House on the day they were introduced, only six mem- 

106 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

bers voting in the negative. They were afterward ma- 
terially amended in the Senate and in the House, and in 
the latter body were laid upon the table by a vote of 48 
to 34, and were not afterward acted upon. On the same 
day (December 21st) the following preamble and resolu- 
tions were offered : 

"Tfliereas, an opinion extensively prevails that, in contract- 
ing a portion of the public debt of this State, the faith of this 
State has been arrogantly and unlawfully pledged to certain 
corporations within her borders, for a continuance for years 
of the powers whose existence and abuse have inflicted incal- 
culable evils upon the community : Therefore, be it 

"Resolved, that the faith of this State, so pledged, be and 
the same is hereby repudiated." 

The vote on this proposition was 29 yeas and 41 nays. 

On the 21st of December, an article appeared in the 
New York Journal of Commerce, a part of which is as 
follows : 

" 'Correspondence of the Journal of Commerce,' being a let- 
ter from Columbus, Ohio, and dated December 14, 1841, in 
which it is stated that: 

" ' The Senate of Ohio has directed, by a strict party vote — 
19 to 17 — the appointment of a standing committee on the 
public debt, whose province it is to inquire into the origin, 
rise, and progress of the present enormous debt of about 
817,000,000, under which the State now groans.' That one 
Senator, Mr. Leonard, in the animated debate which arose 
on the question of appointing this committee, stated ' that 
rumors had been prevalent that the books of the State Fund 
Commissioners would not balance by 8500,000, and that it 
was due to the credit of the State and to the character of the 
Fund Commissioners that such rumors should be put at rest 
forever, or the truth demonstrated by authority. These ru- 
mors, I have been told, were in circulation last year, and 
apply to the late Fund Commissioners. Of their truth or 
falsity I have no means of forming a correct judgment.'" 

107 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

Mr. Taylor, another Senator, in the same letter is re- 
ported as stating as a reason for the appointment of the 
committee, " that the question of repealing the debts 
or the States had already been seriously mooted in 
more than one member of the confederacy, and that the 
frauds complained of elsewhere where were not rare, even 
in the history of the finances of Ohio." The writer says 
he was told, by those who were well informed on the sub- 
ject, that the Senator had reference to " certain acts of 
the Fund Commissioners (of whom Alfred Kelley is the 
6 head and front ') by which they borrowed large sums of 
the Franklin Bank of Columbus and the Bank of Chilli- 
cothe," etc. The writer then adds, " that the committee, 
in the course of its investigations, may discover trans- 
actions far more iniquitous, and far more in contraven- 
tion of law, than these to which I have alluded above." 

The Ohio Statesman, of December 28, 1841, said on 
the same subject : 

" Such is the bankrupt, starving condition of the State and 
her laborers, brought about by one year of Whig misrule and 
bank swindling." 

Mr. Kelley's appreciation of the crisis and of his re- 
sponsibility, together with his purpose with reference to 
them, may be more fully appreciated by some extracts 
from his letters to his wife. On the 25th of December 
he wrote as follows : 

"It is now evening, and I have spent any thing but a 
merry day. Never before in my life have I been placed in a 

108 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

situation so peculiarly difficult and embarrassing. We have 
upward of three hundred thousand dollars to provide, against 
the third day of January, and as yet I do not know positively 
where more than eighty or ninety thousand of it is to be ob- 
tained. We are trying to make arrangements and have 
hopes of effecting them. But we have not yet the certainty. 
While every thing here has been of the most disheartening 
character — money scarce, want of confidence in all kinds of 
securities, stocks falling, money dealers panic-stricken, some 
wretch, in whom is concentrated the essence of malignity, has 
written a letter over a feigned name, or the name of some 
unknown individual, intimating that the Commissioners of 
the Canal Fund had exceeded their powers, that their ac- 
counts would not balance by five hundred thousand dollars, 
and that there was reason to apprehend that they had been 
guilty of still grosser frauds, and that the State might refuse 
to pay debts of their contracting, and this infernal letter is 
published in oue of the principal daily papers of this city. 

"Thus while I am here making almost super-human ef- 
forts — using my personal influence, pledging my individual re- 
sponsibility to raise money to pay the interest on the State 
debt, to preserve her faith and her credit untarnished — some 
debased wretch, some degraded son of Ohio for the sake of 
thwarting and, embarrassing me to gratify his personal or po- 
litical enmity, is willing to make a stab at the honor of the 
State and cause her a serious pecuniary loss. True, this in- 
famous libel was soon contradicted in the same print, but 
slander flies on eagle wings, while truth creeps slowly after on 
the back of a snail. 

" We hope to know on Monday or Tuesday what we can 
do — what we must do. That we shall be compelled to raise 
money at a great sacrifice I have no doubt, and I hope that 
one good at least will grow out of the evil — that the Legis- 
lature and the people will at least be convinced of what I told 
them long ago, that they must curtail their expenditures or 

109 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

be bankrupt. They are now at the end of their tether and 
can go no further." 

On the first of January, 1842, and after he had learned 
who wrote the letter to the Journal of Commerce, he 
said : 

" Though far from being happy myself, because far 
from those I love best, still I am much more happy than I 
was on Christmas day. Then I could not see where the 
money was to come from to pay the interest on the State 
debt ; now I can see where nearly all of it is to come from', 
and have no doubt, among several expedients to raise the 
balance, some of them will prove efficient. 

" Never before was I placed in such a trying and responsi- 
ble situation — surrounded with difficulties nearly insurmount- 
able in themselves, and greatly increased by the fiend-like 
machinations of enemies who for the sake of thwarting me 
would willingly see the State disgraced. I felt it almost im- 
possible to accomplish the object committed to our care, and 
at the same time to move heaven and earth rather than suffer 
myself to be foiled, my enemies to exult in my defeat, and, 
what is more, the great State of Ohio to be forever dis. 
graced. 

"A vile incendiary may set fire to the most splendid edifice — 
it requires no talents to work destruction, and the poor 
wretches whose malice has thrown such obtacles in our way 
may exult as a moth that has eaten holes in a costly garment. 
A foreigner who has been received into the bosom of a hos- 
pitable state, may have the demoniac satisfaction of knowing 
that he has, like the viper in the fable, stung the bosom that 
warmed him into life ; but, thank Heaven, he can not have 
the satisfaction of defeating me in the main object, that of 
saving uninjured the honor of my beloved, though ungrateful, 
State. But for my unwearied exertions, prompt and ener- 

110 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

getic action, and the confidence which I believe is felt in my 
individual energy and responsibility, aud a sincere desire on 
the part of some of the most influential moneyed men here to 
aid me, I do not believe we could have succeeded." 

Such were some, but by no means all, of the obstacles 
which it was necessary to overcome in obtaining money 
for the State, and to save its honor. Though compara- 
tively meager, they will materially aid in appreciating 
the following extracts from what was commenced as an 
obituary notice of Mr. Kelley, by his intimate and valued 
friend, the Hon. Gustavus Swan, but which grew on his 
hands beyond the limits he originally prescribed, and 
contains much that is interesting in relation to this 
critical period in the history of the State. The Judge 
had been a Fund Commissioner immediately before, was 
reappointed in 1842, and was therefore familiar with the 
embarrassments and peculiar circumstances attending 
the payment of the accruing temporary loans, and that 
installment of interest on the public debt. He had 
reason to know and to watch the proceedings of the 
Legislature, its effect upon the markets, and the influ- 
ence upon public opinion. He devoted much of his 
time during the session to endeavoring to prevent per- 
nicious legislation, and to procuring such as would bene- 
fit the State. What occurred was fresh in his mind, and 
he referred, with feeling, to the attacks upon the credit 
of the State, and the risks incurred by his friend. 

Ill 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER X. 

REPUDIATION REPUDIATED. 

Judge Swan's testimony to Mr. Kelley's services at this 
crisis. — A stormy outlook. — Mr. Kelley's personal liabilities. — 
His letter to the Ohio State Journal. — Repudiation repudiated. — 
Mr. Kelley's triumph. — His financial mission to Europe. 



"Great as the debt . undoubtedly is which the citizens of 
the State owe to Mr. Kelley for his long and faithful legisla- 
tive labors, it is small, even insignificant, in comparison to 
that due him for other services, services of which no evidence 
is preserved in the public archives, and which are only known, 
in their full extent, to a very limited number of his survivors. 
It is a fact, however, still susceptible of proof by living wit- 
nesses, that his exertions and personal sacrifices, with but 
little aid from others, saved the State from repudiation. 

" This is not the proper occasion for fully investigating the 
causes which, at more regular periods than meet the common 
observation, produce revulsions in commerce and business, 
and which involve the speculator, the extravagant, the pur- 
blind, and all who make too much haste to become rich, in 
disappointment, distress, and bankruptcy. Certain it is, the 
most alarming revulsion this country ever witnessed, since 
its revolutionary struggle, transpired between the years 1836 
and 1842, and perhaps another year might be added to the 
culmination. 

" The exact period of these monetary revulsions, like those 
of comets from disturbing influences, is difficult of rigorous 
calculation. They are generally, however, preceded by a 
sudden rise and followed by a sudden fall in prices, and the 
fever produced by the one and the torpor left by the other 
are equally fatal to the permanent prosperity of the country. 

"To get in and out of pecuniary embarrassment, and to 
indulge at one time in reckless extravagances, and at another 
to practice the most rigid economy, seem to be the fate of 

112 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

our countrymen. At the period under consideration, the 
people had mistaken the appearance of prosperity, arising 
in part if not exclusively from a redundant circulating 
medium, then, as often, without sufficient basis for permanent 
security for the reality, and had engaged in extreme enter- 
prises, promising little public benefit and scarcely any return 
upon the outlay. They were heedless of the ordinary signs 
which, to the careful and experienced observer, indicate the 
approach of these revolutions with as much certainty as in- 
solvency follows expenditure beyond income, or darkness the 
setting sun. 

" The country was in this condition when Mr. Kelley re- 
ceived the appointment of Canal Fund Commissioner. He 
was not ignorant of the difficulties and responsibility, but 
did not probably anticipate the extent of the former which 
he had the misfortune to encounter ; and, if he had, it was 
not in his nature to decline facing them. Difficulties which 
would deter most men from accepting office or trust, if the 
public good required them to be met and overcome, never 
produced in him a moment's hesitation. His private inter- 
ests, his ease, were always sacrificed for the public good. 
Such was the principle of his life. 

" The public did not rest satisfied with the two canals which 
had at first been undertaken and completed, but under the 
plausible pretext that equality of benefits demanded further 
extension of State improvements, other canals and public 
works, requiring immense outlays for their construction, had 
been undertaken and were in progress and unfinished, without 
having accurately estimated their cost or providing means for 
their completion. 

" No sufficient means had been provided to meet these great 
expenditures, and the further extension of credit appeared to 
be the chief, indeed the only reliance. The probability that 
circumstances might arise which would render this difficult, 
if not impossible, seemed never to have been anticipated by 
the wild projectors of these various schemes. 

" Mr. Kelley had little or nothing to do with any of them 
until the difficulties became unmanageable by those who con- 
trolled the finances, which were in as bad a state as well could 
be imagined, and required no ordinary talent to bring them 

8 113 



Alfred Kelley ; Ids Life and Work. 

out of the derangement and confusion in which they had be- 
come involved. 

" The banks, from necessity, had suspended specie payment, 
and the currency, chiefly paper, had suffered great deprecia- 
tion, or become worthless ; confidence and credit were lost, 
and the State, deeply involved in debt, and depending princi- 
pally upon borrowing, was on the verge of bankruptcy. Such 
was the panic and confusion, and such the loss of confidence 
and credit, that many of our most intelligent and patriotic 
citizens became disheartened and discouraged, and deemed it 
impossible to save the State from the stain and disgrace of 
repudiation, and warmly advocated the suspension or aban- 
donment of the unfinished public works which, they insisted, 
had been imprudently and prematurely begun, and could not 
be finished without involving the State in hopeless ruin. 

" The finances, now in a deranged and confused state, were, 
by bis coadjutors, mainly left to his management and control, 
and fortunately for the State, its citizens and creditors, they 
could not have been committed to abler or more faithful 
hands. 

" In his first official year, almost exclusively by his exer- 
tions, temporary loans were made to carry on the unfinished 
public works which had been improvidently undertaken, and 
to meet other urgent and pressing demands, and the character 
of the State for good faith preserved. 

" When the Legislature convened, in the latter part of the 
year 1841, there were two members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives who rendered themselves notorious for their hostility 
to all corporations, and to all the creditors of the State, urg- 
ing most vehemently that the proper and just remedy for the 
evil was the abrogation at once of all the debts of the State. 
In short, they were radical repudiators in the worst possible 
sense of the term. 

" How these abandoned persons contrived to obtain office, 
and to gain an influence with better men, is a problem not of 
easy solution. All that can be said is that the elective fran- 
chise, like other good things, is occasionally subject to abuse, 
and the masses, like individuals, are not always infallible in 
their judgment. 

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Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

" They appeared to use their greatest efforts to disgrace the 
State, and ruin its innocent creditors. Their fury was partic- 
ularly directed against corporations, and especially moneyed cor- 
porations. They gave tongue, and found not a few, in and out 
of the Legislature, following in the rear, and not less eager to be 
in at the death. They charged the creditors of the State, one 
and all, as being a pack of villians, and their own officers con- 
nected with the revenue as no better. As Mr. Kelley stood 
out prominent amongst the agents of the State, he was pecu- 
liarly the object of their hatred and malignity. His effort to 
save its honor and protect its creditors was denounced as com- 
plicity to defraud it. 

"Some of the partisan prints published their calumnious 
and incendiary harangues, and with commendation, adding 
remarks of their own of a like character, or, if possible, 
worse. 

" The creditors of the State became alarmed at what was 
mistakenly supposed to be the general sentiment and policy of 
the State. It is, however, but justice to say that the majority 
of the people had full confidence in the integrity of the offi- 
cers intrusted with their finances, and w 7 ere ready to make any 
sacrifices to preserve the credit and honor of the State. This, 
however, was less manifest then than afterward. 

"A very great number of private individuals had invested 
their all in our public securities, and several of the banks 
had loaned the State more than half their capital stock. 
The contagion, of their pernicious example spread amongst 
some of the weaker members of the General Assembly, who 
were consequently more susceptible of the moral virus, until 
a large minority, if not a majority of the members, became 
alarmingly infected with repudiation. 

" Under the most inauspicious circumstances which could 
be well imagined, the most fearful crisis the State ever 
encountered was approaching and had to be met. No meas- 
ure was adopted or even proposed by the General Assembly 
to provide means to discharge the claims owing by the State 
and already overdue, or to meet the interest on the public 
debt. For these purposes the officers had to rely upon their 
own exertions or the State must fail. Their situation was ex- 

115 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

tremely embarrassing, and they did not know well what course 
to pursue in the present emergency. The treasury was 
empty, the stocks of the State at a ruinous discount, indeed 
could not be sold at any price, or received in pledge for ad- 
vances ; public credit was gone, and the only alternative pre- 
sented was either to obtain a loan on personal security or submit 
to repudiation, and the choice did not admit of delay. All 
hope of assistance from the Legislature had entirely ceased. 

" His [Mr. Kelley's] resolution was fixed, and no danger, 
no opposing difficulties, could divert him from his purpose. 
He was determined to lose all or save the State from dishonor 
and its creditors from ruin. Such was the confidence re- 
posed in his integrity and financial ability, notwithstanding 
the underhand and atrocious means employed to defeat his 
object, that he was enabled to raise, in that city, when no 
one at the time could have been found there who would have 
intrusted the sovereign State of Ohio with a dollar, nearly 
a quarter of a million on his own personal security ; and thus, 
by his generous efforts, and by his alone, the State was saved 
from disgrace, and thousands of its creditors, including many 
widows and orphans, from poverty, distress, and ruin. 

" No citizen of this State, few of any State or country, 
ever performed a more praiseworthy, a nobler action. His 
labors, his anxiety and sufferings, before he succeeded in the 
magnanimous undertaking, and one which should be pre- 
served in the memory of coming generations through all 
time, can only be known, in their full extent and measure, to 
a few of his survivors and probably to none capable of doing 
them full justice. Nor should it be forgotten that these 
great and valuable services were performed without the smallest 
compensation, and all the hazard incurred without the slight- 
est indemnity." 

Mr. Kelley was necessarily detained in New York un- 
til some time in February. While there he received in- 
formation from Columbus which would have disheartened 
a man who was not possessed of extraordinary courage 
and an indomitable will. 

On the 13th of January Judge Swan wrote : 

116 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

" The course of our Legislature and the public prints, with 
the fearful condition of affairs every-where, is producing a 
universal panic in the mind of the community, the end of 
which can uot be foreseen." 

He refers to a mob attacking banks in Cincinnati, and 
a determination to force other banks into insolvency ; 
and then, after referring to the " absolute ferocity of 
parties," advises Mr. Kelley to resort to all legal means 
within his power to exonerate himself " from personal 
responsibility for the State." 

On the 6th of January, The Statesman in an editorial 
says : 

" This tinkering with the banks has brought our State, as 
it has others, to a state of bankruptcy and discredit that is 
gloomy enough." 

In his memorial Judge Swan refers to the proceedings 
in Columbus after the payment of the interest in New 
York as follows : 

" On his return he discovered that many members of the 
General Assembly showed evident signs of regret and disap- 
pointment, and appeared still determined to suffer things to go 
to ruin without an effort to prevent the calamity. They 
knew well that some of the public debts had been contracted 
to pay others, and hence they appeared to cherish the hope 
to carry into effect their original design, which was to rob the 
whole creditors of the State. 

" Mr. Kelley found, on his return, an unabated hostility 
by many to all who took an interest in the preservation of 
the public faith and honor." 

Although the payment of the interest on the State 
debt in January, 1842, together with the temporary liabili- 
ties then maturing, was perhaps the most important event 

117 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

in the financial history of Ohio, it was still necessary, as 
suggested by Judge Swan, to procure from a reluctant 
Legislature an act of more personal consequence to Mr. 
Kelley than any thing which had preceded it, and of 
quite equal importance to the State. The temporary 
loans must be provided for, and their payment by the 
State could be secured only by the enactment of a law 
for that purpose. Its terms must also be broad enough 
to include the loans made upon his [Mr. Kelley's] per- 
sonal credit. 

Very soon after he reached Columbus, he met a per- 
sonal friend (Mr. John W. Andrews, still living in the 
city), and informed him that he had procured money for 
the State on his individual credit. His friend replied, 
with earnestness, " that he ought not to disclose that 
fact, as the effect would be mischievous." A knowledge 
of his personal liabilities was confined to a very few con- 
fidential friends. 

On the 19th of February, 1842, a bill was introduced 
into the Senate authorizing the commissioners to borrow 
money in order " to pay the temporary loans contracted 
by said commissioners on behalf of the State under the 
authority conferred on them by the acts of March 29, 
1841." This restricted the payment to a particular class 
of loans, and it might be doubtful whether it would have 
embraced the loans of the banks in this State. 

The opposition to the bill in that or any other form 
was persistent ; and, although before the Senate many 
times, it did not pass that body until March 2d. 

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Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

Mr. Kelley' s opinions and acts and motives were freely 
canvassed and grossly misrepresented ; and on that sec- 
ond day of March, in order to inform the public and the 
Legislature of his relation to the causes of the financial 
embarrassment of the State, the remedy, and on whom 
the responsibility of applying it then rested, he pub- 
lished the following in the Ohio State Journal: 

"to the public. 

"It frequently happens that a man is made accountable, 
not only for the sins he actually commits, but for those he has 
endeavored to prevent; not only the consequences of his own 
errors are charged to his account, but the consequences of the 
acts of others against which he remonstrated. Such is my 
fate in regard to the present financial embarrassments of the 
State. 

" These embarrassments are chiefly, if not entirely, owing 
to augmenting the debts of the State more rapidly than the 
resources for paying the interest on these debts could well be 
increased; to a want of economy in prosecuting some, at 
least, of the public works ; to advancing large sums of money 
to private companies, when the State could not obtain money 
to pay the contractors on her own works ; and loaning her 
credit to other companies when she had no credit to spare. 

"Against this unwise and hazardous course of policy, when 
last in the Legislature, I solemnly protested. I warned the 
House of which 1 was a member of its inevitable conse- 
quences, and sought to check the headlong precipitancy with 
which the State was increasing her liabilities, and sacrificing 
her resources to aid private companies in the accomplishment 
of local purposes. But individual and local interests com- 
bined, rendered efficient by a system of log-rolling too com- 
mon in legislative bodies, triumphed over the dictates of 
prudence, and the State continued to contract debts and lend 
her credit, until at last stern necessity forces her to adopt a 
course which prudence long ago dictated. 

"But the condition of the State, though embarrassing, is 
by no means desperate. If the Legislature will now promptly 

119 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

declare that the State liabilities -shall not be increased; that 
only so much stock shall be sold as may be found necessary to 
pay off the temporary loans contracted under the law of the 
last session and the balances now due to contractors, so much 
of it redeemable and the interest payable in New York as is 
necessary to discharge the temporary loans contracted in that 
city, and so much as is necessary to pay the debts due con- 
tractors and the banks of this State, redeemable and the in- 
terest payable at the State treasury ; will suspend the further 
prosecution of the work on all the canals of the State, except 
the Wabash and Erie Canal, and sell the lands belonging to 
that canal to finish the work yet remaining to be done ; will 
advance no more money and lend no more stock to turnpike, 
canal, and railroad companies ; will appropriate all surplus 
moneys in the treasury to the payment of the interest on the 
State debt, in order to make up for the anticipated deficiency 
of tolls arising from the probable scarcity of money during 
the ensuing season — the credit of the State will be sustained, 
the interest on the State debt punctually paid, and further 
embarrassments prevented. 

"If, on the other hand, local and personal considerations 
are yet to prevail over the great and permanent interests of 
the whole State; if serious injury is to be inflicted on the 
credit of the State for the mere purpose of destroying the 
characters of one or two individuals who may chance to be 
obnoxious to personal or party animosity ; if those who are 
intrusted with the guardianship of the public good shape their 
course with reference to making political capital rather than 
to saving the State from lasting disgrace and ruin — then, in- 
deed, is our case a hopeless one. 

"In making these remarks I have been governed by no 
wish to cast censure on the acts or motives of others, in what-' 
ever situations they may have been placed. Nor would per- 
sonal considerations alone have induced me to depart, in this 
instance, from my usual course, which is not to notice the fre- 
quent personal attacks and misrepresentations with which I am 
assailed through the columns of the public prints. But, as 
my conduct as a Commissioner of the Canal Fund is intimately 
connected with the financial condition of the State, I have 
thought it a duty, owing as well to the public and the dis- 
tinguished individual by whom I was appointed, as to myself, 
to correct in general terms the misrepresentations which have 
been so industriously propagated in reference to the agency 

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Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

I have had in producing the embarrassments under which the 
State now labors; and to expose once more, publicly, my 
opiuion as to the course of policy now to be adopted. 

"Alfked Kelley." 

The bill after being amended by substituting a new 
one, which did not contain any provisions whatever for 
the payment of any temporary loans in New York, passed 
the House on the 5th of March. The Legislature had 
resolved to adjourn on Monday the 7th, and, as was the 
custom at that time on the day of adjournment, it met 
the previous midnight and finished its business before 
breakfast. 

On the 5th the Senate refused to agree to the amend- 
ments of the House ; and the House insisted, and asked 
for a committtee of reference. Such was the situation 
when the Legislature adjourned on Saturday night. 
Neither the original bill with or without its amendments, 
nor the substitute of the House, would have enabled the 
commissioners to pay the temporary loans of the State 
or the personal loans made for her benefit. 

Those friends of the State who appreciated its condi- 
tion were now extremely anxious in regard to the re- 
sult. Should either of the pending bills pass, it would 
result in repudiation, as no provision was made to pay 
the temporary loans then maturing ; and the Legislature 
would only be in session on Monday morning from 12 
to about 6 o'clock. During those few hours, and in the 
rush and confusion which always characterize the close 

121 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

of a session, a radical change must be made in the pend- 
ing bills on this subject. 

Though the circumstances seemed unfavorable, those 
who desired the payment of all the liabilities of the State 
did not relax their exertions, but availed themselves of 
every moment in endeavors to satisfy the reluctant 
members that the honor of the commonwealth was at 
stake, and that its liabilities should be provided for. 
And although Mr. Kelley was so deeply interested in 
the result, it was said that he was the coolest and most 
collected of them all. Notwithstanding the injudicious 
and unjust proceedings of the Legislature he did not 
believe it would openly and deliberately repudiate its 
liabilities, or rush into bankruptcy. 

The bills then pending were so grossly inadequate 
and defective that Mr. Kelley had previously prepared 
a bill in accordance with the article " To the Public " 
and fully carrying out its suggestions. This bill was 
submitted to the committee of conference ; and, although 
it differed radically from the bills under its considera- 
tion, the committee was so influenced by the represen- 
tations of its friends, the position in which the publica- 
tion of March 2d placed its opponents, the necessity 
for doing something, and the impossibility of agreeing 
upon any thing then before the committee or preparing 
any thing new, from want of time, that they decided to 
report the bill so submitted to each House ; in which its 
passage was one of the last acts before the adjournment 
Monday morning. Notwithstanding the evident pro- 

122 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

priety and even necessity for its passage, ten voted 
against it in the Senate, and sixteen in the House. It 
contained a provision for the sale of so much of the 
" stock of the State " in New York City, without any 
limit as to price, as would produce a net sum " not ex- 
ceeding five hundred thousand dollars," for the purpose 
of paying the temporary loans contracted on behalf of 
this State by said commissioners, in the City of New 
York, and in this State, and now remaining unpaid. It 
provided also for the suspension of all the public works 
of the State except the Wabash and Erie Canal until the 
close of the next General Assembly ; for borrowing 
money to pay " balances now due to contractors upon 
the public works, and for the completion of the Wa- 
bash and Erie Canal." 

Few then appreciated the imminent danger of the 
State on the 3d of January and the 7th of March, 1842. 
Forty-five years have passed, during which many impor- 
tant events have occurred and changes taken place ; and 
it is only the quite aged who have any knowledge of the 
general financial condition or the peculiar situation of 
the State at the periods referred to. On the 3d of Jan- 
uary its honor and credit were saved, and could have 
been saved, only by pledging individual responsibility for 
money to pay its interest ; and on the 7th of March by 
procuring through outside effort and influence the passage 
of a bill, by a reluctant Legislature and in the last hour 
of its session, without which its liabilities would have 
been protested, and its credit forever dishonored. 

123 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

The law of March 7th declared an intention on the 
part of the State to pay its liabilities of every descrip- 
tion, and, as far as practicable, to diminish its expendi- 
tures. This declaration materially improved her stand- 
ing in the eastern market. That market was unsettled, 
and there was a strong indisposition to purchase any se- 
curities ; but much was gained by the removal, to some 
extent, of the bad reputation the State had acquired in 
consequence of the previous proceedings of the Legisla- 
ture and the declarations of members and editors. 

What was accomplished by the board, consisting of 
N. A. Swayne, Alfred Kelley, and Gr. Swan, during the 
first four months, together with their views, may be 
gathered from a few extracts taken from a special report 
made by them on the 28th of July, 1842, and which was 
probably written by Mr. Kelley. They say : 

" It will be remembered that, at the close of the last session 
of the General Assembly (March. 7, 1842), a full report was 
made, embracing all the transactions of the board up to that 
period. 

"Since that time, all the temporary liabilities of the State 
(except those to the banks of Ohio, from which temporary 
loans had been previously made) have been extinguished. No 
new loans of that character have been contracted. 

" The amount taken from the interest fund and applied to 
the public works during the past year, as heretofore reported, 
has been restored. The installment of interest recently due 
on the State debt was punctually paid, without embarrass- 
ment or difficulty. 

" The undersigned have deemed it of the highest importance 
to maintain the character of the State, hitherto unsullied, for 
integrity in her dealings with those who, confiding in her good 
faith and punctuality in meeting her engagements, have, 
without any other security, intrusted her with their money. 

124 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

A failure to pay the interest on the State debt would produce 
mischief and suffering, far-reaching in their ramifications 
beyond what can be readily conceived, in these times of wide- 
spread baukruptcy and universal apprehension ; it would 
at once make shipwreck of the value of the stock to the 
holder. Such securities are always absorbed as permanent 
investments. Another immediate effect would consequently 
be in many instances to deprive the aged and infirm, the 
widow and the orphan, of the means of bread and raiment. 
No consideration of a selfish nature, in public or private 
affairs, should ever have the slightest weight when poised 
against those of justice and good faith; and in an enlarged 
view of any subject requiring human action, whatever is 
morally right is always identical with what is expedient. In 
the most selfish view, however, that can be taken of this sub- 
ject, a failure to meet the foreign engagements of the State 
would be the worst possible policy for all concerned. She 
would at once be shorn of her credit, and consequently de- 
prived of the means of commanding money by loan for any 
purpose. All those to whom she is indebted, at home as well 
as abroad, would consequently suffer. The value of the se- 
curities in their hands would be greatly impaired, if not de- 
stroyed, while the prospect of future payment would be ren- 
dered dark and distant, and depend entirely upon the 
restoration of her credit. All would be injured and none 
would be benefited. Public credit is like individual charac- 
ter — it is much easier to "preserve than to restore it. 

"The sacrifices which the State has made in order to meet 
her engagements have not been such as in any material degree 
to increase her burdens, and are not greater than those made 
by other States in undoubted credit. The results secured in 
the fulfillment of her engagements and the maintenance of 
her credit are worth greatly more than they have cost." 

The act of March 7, 1842, conferred upon the com- 
missioners extraordinary powers, which were coupled 
with great responsibility. The emergency was such as 
to require such a law. The execution of the law, and to 
carry the State through that critical period, required 
more than ordinary discretion and judgment. What was 

125 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

done under it is embodied in the report of December 
27th, made by GK Swan and N. H. Swayne, Mr. Kelley 
not uniting in it on account of his absence. 

In order to procure some of the money required, the 
commissioners, on account of the depressed condition of 
the American market, in the language of the report, 
" deemed it their duty, before making sales to any con- 
siderable extent at home, to try the effect of an effort in 
the European market." Mr. Kelley accordingly went to 
Europe in May, where, according to the report, " he 
found the apprehension of the security of all the Amer- 
ican stocks so strong, and so little discrimination made 
between the stocks of the punctual and solvent States 
and those of the States which had adopted the doctrine 
of repudiation or sunk into insolvency, that the prospect 
there was no better than at home. He made a sale, 
however, upon terms which yielded about sixty-eight per 
cent upon the par value of the stock. The particulars 
of the sale will be found in the account before referred 
to. Further sales have been made from time to time, in 
the eastern market, the particulars of all of which will 
also be found in the same account." 

The following extracts demonstrate the wisdom of 
the law : 

"All the temporary liabilities abroad, mentioned in the last 
annual report of the commissioners, have been paid. No 
other loans of that kind, of any considerable magnitude, have 
since been made." 

In reference to the law, and their action under it, the 

commissioners say : 

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Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

" They believe the inquiry may be safely challenged, both 
as to the action of the Legislature and of the commissioners 
in giving it effect. What better could have been done f" 

The following statements are made in regard to inter- 
est and liabilities : 

" The interest upon the domestic debt was punctually paid 
when it became due. The interest upon the foreign debt also 
was punctually paid upon the first days of January and July 
last. The interest upon that debt, which will become due on 
the first of January, proximo, will also be punctually met." 

" Less than two and a half millions of dollars would be 
sufficient to pay all tne liabilities of the State, other than 
the funded debt, and also to complete the Miami Extension 
Canal." 

Tho commissioners then make a statement which is 
taken from a table prepared by Mr. Kelley the year pre- 
vious, and attached to the annual report of January 20, 
1842, of the area, fertility, productions, exports, popula- 
tion and its increase, the debt, revenue, and the true value 
of lands and personal property of the State, and add : 

"The entire funded debt, foreign and domestic, is $14,- 
967,519. The interest upon this sum is $897,951.14. The 
whole debt is less than the exports from the State during a 
single year. If the State were wholly without the income 
derived from her investments, a tax of a mill and three-fourths 
upon the dollar, of the actual value of her real and personal 
property liable to taxation, ivoidd more than pay her entire in- 
terest; and a tax of two and three-fourths per cent on the 
dollar ivoidd more than pay the entire debt" 

In March, 1843, Mr. Kelley and his associates retired 
from office ; the Board having been reorganized by a law 
passed in that month. 

They delivered to their successors the assets of the 

127 



Alfred Kelley ; Jiis Life and Work. 

office in good condition, with the interest provided for, 
all stains upon the credit of the State removed, and 
every thing so arranged that no difficulty would afterward 
be encountered, if judicious legislation should be se- 
cured, and reasonably good judgment exercised in car- 
rying out its provisions. 

128 






Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER XI. 

A NEW BANKING SYSTEM. 

Ketirement from office. — Elected to the Senate. — The currency 
and its reform. — The United States Bank. — The panic of 1837. — 
A State bank for Ohio. — Mr. Kelley's views. — Foundation of the 
present banking system. 



Mr. Kelley retired from office and the service of the 
State in 1843. He was not however allowed to enjoy the 
rest he longed for and needed, but in the fall of 1844 
was elected to the Senate. The cause which produced 
this result was a desire among the leading men of the 
State that he should aid in improving the currency, and 
perfecting some plan by which the finances of the State 
would be rendered secure against general business de- 
rangment, and also against the assaults, open or covert, 
of those who might attempt to break down public credit. 

The condition of the currency in 1844 may be gath- 
ered from what has been hereinbefore stated ; and orig- 
inated in an unfortunate policy of the General Govern- 
ment adopted many years before. From an early period 
down to 1833 or 1834, the currency and commercial 
transactions of the country were influenced, and in a 
great measure regulated, by a United States Bank. Its 
circulating notes were every-where readily received, and 
producers could always procure needed temporary loans. 
Its bills of exchange, between the most distant points, 
9 129 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

also furnished the producer the means which were indis- 
pensable, in a country so extensive and possessing so 
productive a soil and such a variety in climate as the 
United States, in transporting his products to a market. 
The country, during that period, was generally prosper- 
ous. Unfortunately, the administration became hostile 
to the bank, and commenced a war of extermination 
against it. A re-charter was refused and its business 
closed. And in defiance of the timely w arn i n g that a 
" degraded paper currency," especially when " authorized 
by law," is oppressive and demoralizing, under a strong 
influence from Washington, a swarm of chartered and 
private banks sprang up in every State to supply its 
place. An unnatural stimulus was thus given to every 
branch of business ; imports were increased and exceeded 
exports ; speculations entered into every department of 
business; real estate rose rapidly in its nominal value ; 
large portions of the public domain were appropriated 
by individuals and companies ; property of every de- 
scription was bought and sold with marvelous rapidity ; 
and fortunes were apparently made in a day. In 1836, 
Mr. Calhoun stated in the Senate that " he believed the 
state of the currency incurably bad, so that it was very 
doubtful whether the highest skill and wisdom could re- 
store it to soundness." In the midst of this mania for 
paper money, the virus of which proceeded from Wash- 
ington, the President issued a " circular," requiring all 
agents for the sale of the public lands to receive nothing 
but specie in payment. Coin was also exported to pay 

130 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

for the excess of imports over exports. This increase of 
paper and drain upon the metallic currency rendered it 
impossible for the banks to redeem their issues ; and in 
1837 a suspension became general throughout the coun- 
try. Ohio, being midway between the East and West, 
was a great sufferer by the influx of paper from other 
States. Portions of the State were not seriously affected 
by the mania for extravagance and overtrading, but the 
circulation of worthless paper deranged her business 
generally and was destructive of confidence. Her few 
solvent banks were crippled by the multitude of those 
which were of more than doubtful credit. Previous to 
the resumption of 1842 or 1843, many unsuccessful at- 
tempts were made to establish systems of banking ; and 
although after the resumption the business of the country 
was conducted upon a sounder basis, there still remained 
a general distrust. Comparatively few banks were above 
suspicion, and the reputation of such was very limited. 
The desire, if not the necessity, of a banking system 
which would command the public confidence in and out- 
side of the State was very evident, and it was demanded 
by all sound and judicious dealers. Such was the con- 
dition of the State and the currency when Mr. Kelley 
took his seat in the Senate in December, 1844. 

During the interval between the election and the 
meeting of the Legislature, he devoted much time to the 
subjects of banking and currency, and on the 7th of 
January, as chairman of the committee on currency, he 
matured and introduced a bill " To incorporate the State 

131 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

Bank of Ohio and other banking companies." The bill 
was accompanied by a report, which clearly sets forth 
the purposes and objects of its various provisions. The 
material parts of the report are as follows : 

" The committee entertain no doubt that a very large ma- 
jority of the people of the State anxiously desire the enact- 
ment by the present General Assembly, of some law author- 
izing the establishment of banks which will furnish them with 
a safe and convenient currency, afford reasonable facilities for 
obtaining money to meet the wants of commercial and manu- 
facturing operations, and at the same time hold out proper 
inducements to those who have money to invest in banking 
institutions. 

"In framing this bill, the committee have constantly in 
view the great land-marks of entire security to the bill 
holder, reasonable security to dealers with the banks, and 
proper inducement to the capitalist, whether great or small, 
to invest his disposable means in banking. 

" Two modes of banking have, within a few years, been 
presented to the people of Ohio, and each appears to have its 
devoted friends. The one a system of associated banks, each 
to some extent exercising a restraining power over the others, 
or rather, the whole association exercising the power so far as 
is necessary to prevent hazard to the public or to the associa- 
tion, over each of the banks so associated, and being bound 
for the default of any one so far as to prevent any loss to the 
bill holder. The other a plan of banking similar to that pro- 
vided for in the New York general banking law, allowing any 
association which may be formed for that purpose to obtain 
notes for circulation by depositing with the Treasurer of State 
the certificates of the funded debt of the State as collateral 
security for the redemption of those notes. The conflicting 
opinions in regard to the relative merits of the two systems 
seem to have arisen and acquired strength in different sections 
of the State, as much from the difference in the financial con- 
dition of the inhabitants of those sections as from the oppo- 
site views which different men will take of the same subject 
when presented to the minds of each. 

132 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

" In one section, where there is little or no surplus capital 
in the hands of the resident citizens, but where the amount 
of commercial business is great, and the field for the profit- 
able use of money extensive, a system of banking which it 
is believed will induce foreign capitalists to invest their 
means in bank is deemed to be of paramount importance. 
While in another section, where the amount of local capital 
is sufficient to furnish the community with the necessary bank^ 
ing facilities, such a system is desired as will permit resident 
capitalists to engage in banking without compelling them to 
make large investments in public securities to be pledged for 
the redemption of the circulation of the bank. 

" To reconcile these conflicting opinions, and to extend to 
the different sections of the State that relief which the people 
so generally demand at the hands of the General Assembly, 
the committee have so framed the bill as to give to the cap- 
italists, whether citizens or non-residents of the State, their 
choice as to the mode of investing their means in banking. 

" In authorizing the business of banking upon the plan of 
securing the notes of circulation by the hypothecation of 
certificates of stock, the committee have departed in several 
particulars from the provisions of the general banking law 
of New York. This they have done after mature reflection, 
and from a settled conviction that it would be unsafe to 
adopt that law in this State, without further restrictions. 

"Most of the capitalists who have availed themselves of 
the provisions of that law in New York are citizens of that 
State, amenable alike to public opinion where they reside 
and to the penal laws of the State. Most of those who would 
be expected to avail themselves of such a law in this state 
are not resident citizens of the State, and would therefore be 
amenable to a very limited extent either to our laws or to 
public opinion. Nor can the characters of men for honor, in- 
tegrity, or responsibility, be as well known in a distant State 
as in the State where they reside. To secure within our own 
borders a portion at least of the capital which is indispensable 
to correct and honest banking, and a part of the stockholders 
in accordance with whose will the banks are to be conducted, 
so as to have something tangible upon which our laws can 
operate, and directors who shall be known to our citizens, and 
who shall be amenable to our penal laws, if fraud upon the 
public shall be attempted, the committee have deemed it 
indispensable to require to be paid in an amount of capital 

133 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

stock which shall bear a certain proportion to the amount of 
circulation to which the banks shall be limited ; to provide 
against the withdrawal of such capital, that the directors 
shall be citizens of the State, whose moral characters and re- 
sponsibility can be known, and who shall themselves have so 
much at stake as will make it their interest faithfully to ad- 
minister the affairs of the bank. 

" The laws of New York to which we have alluded pre- 
sent the curious anomally of prohibiting, under heavy penal- 
ties, the withdrawal of any portion of the capital of a bank- 
ing company while it shall continue its business as a bank ; 
while the same laws require no capital whatever for the daily 
banking operations of the company, leaving this whole mat- 
ter to he decided by the peculiar notions or ulterior designs 
of the banker ; for the prohibition against the withdrawal of 
capital cannot be construed to relate to the certificates of 
funded debt pledged with the comptroller, as these are beyond 
the reach of the banker, and can only be given up to him on 
his complying with certain prescribed conditions. 

" The committee are aware that it is said by the advocates 
of the New York system that the Legislature is bound to 
provide ample security for the note-holder, and for him alone, 
letting all others who choose to deal with a banking com- 
pany, either as depositors or as purchasers of its bills of ex- 
change, do so at their own risk. In this doctrine the com- 
mittee do not concur. They view a law of the State which 
gives to companies corporate powers, as well as a right to issue 
notes for circulation, as to some extent a letter of credit to 
the company ; they consider the Legislature to some extent 
responsible for the correct conduct of the company ; and they 
feel confident that the practicing of frauds by such a com- 
pany upon its depositors, and the purchasers of bills of ex- 
change, even should its note-holders be secure, would bring 
merited opprobium upon the law, and discredit on those by 
whom it was enacted. 

"The committee have also deemed it important to limit 
the total amount of banking capital authorized by the bill. 
The apprehension of excessive banking, whether well or ill- 
founded, has a tendency to deter prudent men from engag- 
ing in that business, while it can not fail to alarm the com- 
munity with the idea of an inflated currency with all its wild 
speculations and extravagances, and as an inevitable conse- 

134 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

quence a subsequent contraction, which will bring ruin upon 
thousands, aud distress all. 

" It is said that the privilege to bank should be as free 
as that of engaging iu any other kind of business ; that if it 
be carried to excess, competition, with diminished profits, 
will insure a proper reduction ; and that the evil will thus 
work out its own cure, as in other pursuits. Those who 
reason in this way do not, in the opinion of the committee, 
take a view of the whole ground ; while they trace the analo- 
gies between banking and other individual pursuits, they 
omit to notice the points in which the analogy fails. 

" If a greater amount of capital or labor be employed in 
farming, manufacturing, or commercial business, than can be 
made profitable, the loss falls upon those who invest their 
capital or labor. Those portions of the public who are en- 
gaged in other pursuits, so far from being sufferers, are, per- 
haps, gainers in consequence of the withdrawal of capital or 
labor from the pursuits in which they are engaged, and in 
the cheapening of the articles produced by those who have 
made these excessive investments. But when the currency 
of a country is too much inflated, a moral fever is produced 
through the whole body politic w 7 hich injuriously affects every 
interest in the community, and cannot fail to draw after it 
subsequent exhaustion with its long train of sufferings and 
evils. 

"It may be said, and the committee think truly, that 
there is.no immediate danger of excessive banking in this 
State. There are those, however, and men whose opinions 
are entitled to respect, who think differently ; and the enter- 
taining of this opinion by capitalists will as effectually deter 
them from engaging in the business of banking, while they 
believe that it may be carried to excess, as if their appre- 
hensions were reduced to certainty. The committee have, 
therefore, in the bill which they have now the honor to pre- 
sent, limited the amount of banking capital authorized by 
the bill to six millions of dollars. 

"Such a limitation drew after it the necessity of appor- 
tioning the capital among the several sections of the State, 
according to the supposed w r ants of each, and the probability 
of its being supplied. In doing this they have taken into 
view 7 the banking capital at present employed, and have as- 
signed to the districts in which such capital now exists a less 
amount of that which is to be created by the formation of 
new companies." 

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Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

This bill, which became a law in February without 
any organic or perhaps material change, embodied in 
clear, concise, and accurate language, provisions in- 
tended to secure every benefit and provide against every 
danger referred to in the report. Mr. Kelley's skill 
in drawing bills, which had long been known and 
universally acknowledged, was illustrated in this in- 
stance by the forcible and appropriate language which 
precluded every construction but the one intended. 
Without giving any details, it is perhaps sufficient to say 
that banks were established under the bill throughout 
the State, and from that time to the commencement of 
the Rebellion, when the present United States bank law 
superseded all others, the public was furnished with a 
sound currency, the bill-holder was protected, and few 
were subjected to loss or inconvenience while the banks 
were in existence, or when they were wound up and their 
charters surrendered. From its adoption the banks or- 
ganized under it commanded the respect and confidence 
of capitalists every-where, and at no time did any por- 
tion of the public entertain any doubt as to its security, 
or any fear of loss. The capitalist, the borrower, the 
note-holder, and the depositor were brought together on 
equal terms ; and the rights of each were so defined and 
secured that fraud, imposition, and oppression were ren- 
dered difficult, though, perhaps, not impossible. 

If any one will take the trouble to compare the bank 
law of the United States with that of Ohio, he will find 
that nearly every material provision is found in them 

136 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

both. He will also find that there is a striking similarity 
in the language of many sections. The law of Ohio 
seems to have been the model used, and was only so 
modified as to be adapted to the United States instead 

of to Ohio alone. 

137 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER XII. 

REVENUE REFORM. 

Revision of the revenue system. — Mr. Kelley's report. — Equal- 
ization of taxation. — Sound economics. 



While Mr. Kelley was engaged upon the bank law, he 
was not unmindful of the difficult task of revising the 
revenue system of the State, which he was expected to 
undertake. He had many years before referred to its 
defects, and in general terms pointed out the remedy. 
That remedy involved a radical change in the system, in 
regard to which the public is at all times very sensitive. 
With a view, therefore, of bringing the subject, as early 
as practicable, before the Legislature and the people, he, 
in the early party of the session, offered a resolution, 
which was adopted, requesting the Auditor of State to 
furnish as soon as practicable " the net revenue applica- 
ble to the payment of interest on the debts of the State 
during each of the last six years," specifying the net 
revenue derived from the public works, the amount of 
taxes in aid of such revenue, and the amount from other 
sources, the amount of interest paid, and the deficiency 
of the revenues to meet the interest during each of those 
years, and the sources from which the deficiency was 
supplied. 

In answer to this resolution the Auditor made a report 

138 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

which was referred to the committee on finance, of which 
Mr. Kelley was a member, and he, on behalf of the com- 
mittee, prepared, and on the 7th of February submitted, 
a report which had much influence on subsequent legisla- 
tion. The following extracts from the report, and 
abridgment of other portions of it, clearly show the 
financial condition of the State, and the necessity for 
immediate and radical changes in its policy and laws. 
After reciting the resolution, and what it was designed to 
elicit, the committee express their regret : 

" That the Auditor has not been able to communicate to 
the Senate the desired information in a more full and in- 
telligible form. They will, however, attempt, from official 
documents, and mostly from the reports of the Auditor, to 
supply this deficiency and lay before the Senate, in a con- 
densed shape, such information as will enable them to form a 
tolerably accurate idea of the financial condition of the State, 
and to judge of the necessity of providing other sources of 
revenue." 

They then state in detail the interest account for the 
six years from 1839 to 1844 inclusive, as follows : 

First. The interest paid each year. 

Second. The amounts received and applicable to the 
payment of interest from canal tolls, taxes, and every 
other source. 

Third. The excess of interest over the revenue ap- 
plicable to its payment. After making every allowance 
and every deduction which could be reasonably claimed, 
there still remained " a deficiency of accruing revenue 
applicable to the payment of interest on the debts of the 
State for the last six years of $720,858.05." 

139 



Alfred Kelley ; Ids Life and Work. 

" How, with this large deficiency in the interest fund, has 
the interest on the State deht been paid, is an inquiry which 
will naturally present itself to the mind of every citizen of 
Ohio who is anxious to preserve unimpaired the credit of the 
State. In order to answer this question, the reports and pro- 
ceedings of the Fund Commissioners, as well as of the 
Auditor, were carefully examined, and it was found that the 
deficit each year had been supplied by temporary loans, an- 
ticipations of revenue by means of drafts, anticipations by 
deposits of county treasurers, loans of other funds from the 
State treasury, the use of funds obtained to pay contractors, 
and perhaps other like expedients." 

The committee then add : 

" In regard to the impolicy of increasing the debt of the 
State, by the application of moneys to the payment of inter- 
est which do not properly belong to the interest fund, the 
committee will take the liberty to quote from the annual re- 
port of the present Auditor of State, under date of December 
2, 1839. After stating the deficit in the interest fund for 
that year at $253,757.42, the Auditor proceeds : 

" ' Which is annually supplied by additional loans, and ap- 
propriated to the payment of interest. This means of addi- 
tion to a public debt is of a startling character, and certainly 
a most miserable financial operation. The sum of two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars borrowed and applied to in- 
terest this year involves the application of $215,000 [$265,000] 
the next, admitting the debt to remain stationary, and so, 
from year to year, the process of compounding goes on until 
it assumes a most formidable and alarming character. The 
great error, and one which has proved an ignis fatuus to our 
public authorities, leading them still further into the labyrinth 
of public debt, has been the habit of reporting and regarding 
our domestic debt as accumulating revenue for canal purposes, 
and shutting their eyes to the fact that every dollar of that 
reveuue so appropriated to the payment of interest, was itself 
borrowed, and accumulating interest for the future as certainly 
as if it had passed through the more formal routine of nego- 
tiation in Wall street or in London.' 

" By the act of February 4, 1825, it is made the duty of 
the Auditor to assess such tax on all the property in this State 
entered on the grand list, and taxable for State purposes, as 

140 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

will produce, together with the net profits of the canals annu- 
ally collected and paid into the Treasury for each year, an 
amount sufficient to meet the interest payable for such year on 
all loans, etc., exclusive of the sum collected for the sinking 
fund ; and by act of March 16, 1839, making appropriations 
for new public works, this duty was again enjoined on the 
Auditor, and made irrevocable. 

" The committee can not forbear expressing their regret 
that the Auditor, as well as his predecessor, has, for a succes- 
sion of years previously to the last, levied an amount of taxes 
inadequate to the demands of the interest fund. 

"To the impolicy of accumulating debt for the purpose of 
paying interest, the committee have already adverted. They 
have also called attention to the imminent danger of suffering 
the finances of the State to remain in their present deranged 
condition. It remains to consider by what means within the 
power of the General Assembly the deficit can be made up, so 
that the interest on the State debt can be paid from time to 
time as it falls due, without anticipating her revenues or re- 
sorting to temporary loans. Two modes of replenishing the 
interest fund have presented themselves to the committee. 

"The first is to negotiate a permanent loan for the amount 
of the present deficit, Although this mode of extricating the 
finances of the State from their embarrassments may, perhaps, 
be preferable to the temporary expedients which have for 
several years been from necessity adopted, still the committee 
is not prepared to recommend it for adoption. 

"The other, and in the opinion of the committee the only 
legitimate, mode of making up the deficiency in the interest 
fund is by increasing the revenues of the State applicable to 
that purpose. This, the committee is sensible, can not at 
once be done without such an increase of taxes as the people 
would find it difficult, if not impossible, to pay. Indeed, the 
taxes now imposed on property entered on the grand list for 
taxation are, in many instances, as high as the property can 
well bear. There is, however, in the State a large amount of 
property which, under our present laws, entirely escapes 
taxation. 

" If our revenue laws shall be so amended as to bring this 
property upon the grand list for taxation, as the committee 
hope may be done, the revenue may be so increased, without 
making the taxes more oppressive than they now are, as, in 

141 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

the course of three or four years at most, fully to restore the 
interest fund and avoid the necessity of anticipating the 
revenues by means of temporary loans or otherwise. 

"The committee are aware that by thus disclosing, as far 
as in their power, the true condition of the finances of the 
State, they run the risk of alarming the more timid of the 
holders of the stocks of the State. 

" But they believe it to be important, not only to the inter- 
ests of the State, but to the interests of the stockholders, that 
the representatives of the people, and the people of the State 
themselves, should be correctly informed upon this subject. 
To the General Assemby this knowledge is necessary, that the 
proper remedy may be applied before it is too late ; and to the 
people it is equally desirable, that they may be able to judge 
of the necessity of imposing upon them additional burdens ; 
and the sagacious creditor of the State, instead of feeling 
alarmed that the Legislature and the people of Ohio are 
boldly inquiring into the real condition of their finances with 
the view of applying the proper remedy, will feel renewed 
confidence in her integrity and determination honestly to meet 
her engagements to th'e uttermost farthing." 

At the same session, a bill was introduced on the sub- 
ject of taxation and referred to the committee on finance. 
The bill did not become a law, but the report of the 
committee on the general subject of taxation contains 
additional and important suggestions, upon w T hich legis- 
lation on this subject has been based from that day to 
this. The report was prepared and submitted by Mr. 
Kelley on the 17th of February, and the material por- 
tions of it are as follows : 

"That from an examination of the financial condition of 
the State, its accruing revenues, and the annual charges 
thereon, the committee are satisfied that an increase of reve- 
nue is indispensable. Although the State may continue, by 
resort to temporary expedients and extraordinary means, to 
pay the interest on her funded debts, as she has heretofore 

142 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

done, without an iDcrease of her revenues applicable to that 
purpose, the committee deem it extremely hazardous, as well 
as impolitic, to rely on means and expedients liable to be af- 
fected by so many unforeseen contiugencies, for the accom- 
plishment of an object of such vital importance to the honor 
and credit of the State, as is the punctual payment of the 
interest on her debts. 

" For a more full statement of the present condition of the 
finances of the State, and the views of the committee upon 
that important subject, they ask leave to refer the Senate to 
their report (that of February 7th) relative to the condition 
of the interest fund. 

"If it be conceded that an increase of revenue is neces- 
sary to meet the current expenses of the State government, 
and insure the punctual payment of interest on the State 
debt, the question, ' how is this increased revenue to be ob- 
tained,' presents itself for consideration. 

"It is evident that this object can be attained in one or 
the other of two ways. First, by increasing the rate of tax- 
ation on property now entered on the grand levy for tax- 
ation ; or, second, by adding to the tax list property not now 
entered thereon. 

"To the first mode there are, in the opinion of the com- 
mittee, insuperable objections. 

" On a large portion of the property now entered on the 
list, the tax is already so high as to preclude the idea of in- 
creasing it." 

"Whenever the public burdens are necessarily heavy, 
justice, as well as good policy, requires that these burdens 
should be made to bear as equally as possible, in order that 
they may bear as lightly as possible, on those who are com- 
pelled to sustain the weight. Such is not the case. Prop- 
erty listed for taxation is at present valued so unequally that, 
while the tax on one portion is equivalent to its net income, 
on the other portions it amounts to not more than one-tenth 
or one-twentieth part of the profits which they yield. But 
the injustice of suffering a large proportion of the most pro- 
ductive property of the State entirely to escape taxation, 
while property less profitable to the owners is made to bear 
the whole burden of sustaining the public revenues, is still 
more glaring. 

" Fully impressed with the belief that sound policy, as well 

143 



Alfred Kelley ; . his Life and Work. 

as impartial justice, requires each individual in the com- 
munity to contribute in proportion to his property and in- 
come, to the support of that government by which his life, 
liberty, and estate are protected, and to those expenses by 
which his property is made productive, the committee can 
not hesitate to express their decided conviction that a law 
should be enacted providing for a fair and equal cash valu- 
ation of all the property in the State, both real and personal, 
for the purposes of taxation, except such as reasons of public 
policy require to be exempted. The necessity of providing 
means for increasing the revenues of the State renders this 
measure still more important. 

" The committee are fully aware that it has been the policy 
of the State, from the first organization of its government, in 
valuing lands, other than town lots, for taxation, to exempt 
the value of the improvements made upon the land. This 
policy was adopted when far the greater proportion of the 
lands of the State was owned by non-resident proprietors." 

" Most of the tracts or parcels of arable land sufficiently 
large for a farm, are now more or less improved, and it is no 
longer necessary to abstain from taking improvements into 
view in determining the value of land for taxation, from a 
fear of preventing or discouraging the making of those im- 
provements. 

" On the contrary, imposition of an equal tax on unim- 
proved lands and on those that are in a high state of culti- 
vation has a direct influence to prevent the purchasing of new 
lands for the purposes of cultivation. For, when a man has 
expended his whole means in buying a piece of unimproved 
land, and is expending his time and labor in bringing it to a 
state of cultivation, it is oppressive to compel him to pay the 
same amount of tax as is imposed oa a highly cultivated and 
profitable farm in the immediate vicinity, containing an equal 
number of acres. 

" While a principle so unjust is suffered to remain in our 
system of levying taxes, it must necessarily discourage the 
purchasing and opening of new farms. It may be said that 
the imposition of heavy taxes on unimproved lands will in- 
duce the holder to sell them. This inducement, however, 
will produce little or no effect if, by our laws, still greater im- 
pediments are throwm in the way of the purchaser; for where 
there are no buyers, there can be no sale. 

144 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



<< r r 



The committee are also aware of the argument frequently 
adduced against assessing the value of improvements on land 
on the ground that it operates as a tax on the product of 
labor, and, therefore, discourages productive industry. But 
'where is the property that is not ihe product of labor?' 
Productive industry may be regarded as the creative power 
by which every thing which we denominate property is pro- 
duced ; and the committee can see no reason why the prop- 
erty of one man, obtained by labor, and invested in unim- 
proved lands, in town lots, in horses, in cattle, or other tax- 
able property, should be subjected to taxation, while the 
property of another, invested in improvements on his farm, 
and equally productive, is suffered to escape. 

" Many and just complaints are now heard of the existing 
inequalities in the valuation of real estate for the purpose of 
taxation. In numerous instances tracts of land are entered 
upon the tax list at from fifty to one hundred dollars per 
acre, while lands of equal value, separated from the former 
only by imaginary lines, are assessed at not more than eight 
or ten dollars per acre. A similar inequality, but less in de- 
gree, exists in the valuation of lands situate in different 
counties. 

"Although discrepancies of this kind, to a greater or less 
extent, are incident to all human acts, still a due allowance 
for errors in judgment will not account for the enormous in- 
equalities which are found to exist in the valuation of lands 
for taxation. These gross inequalities can only be accounted 
for from the absence of any definite and intelligible rule or 
condition for determining the value of lands. If these lands 
were required to be appraised at their true value, inclusive 
of all improvements thereon, a criterion of the value would 
easily be found in the price for which the same or similar 
lands have recently been sold, or in the price demanded by 
the owner, if held for sale. But when the improvements are 
to be excluded, and a value altogether hypothetical and imag- 
inary is required to be affixed to the land, supposing it to be 
a state of nature, so indefinite is the rule, and so great the 
latitude given for construction as to leave both the judgment 
and the conscience of the appraiser, like a ship at sea with- 
out rudder or compass, entirely without guide or restraint. 

"A still more serious objection to the present revenue laws 
of the State is to be found in the fact that real estate is 
made to bear an unequal and unjust portion of the burden 

10 145 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

of taxation. It will be seen, by reference to the last an- 
nual report of the Auditor of State, that lands, including 
town lots and buildings thereon, are assessed at $109,142,152, 
while personal property of every description is assessed at only 
$27,000,514. From which it appears that more than four- 
fifths of the whole amount of taxes of the State are assessed 
on lands. 

" The committee have not the means of ascertaining, with 
perfect accuracy, the relative value of the real and personal 
property of the State. They are, however, of opinion that 
personal property constitutes at least one-third, instead of one- 
fifth of the whole. • 

" It is apparent that if the personal property which now 
escapes taxation were made to pay its fair proportion of tax, 
lands would be relieved from taxation to that extent. 

" Much of the personal property which under our present 
laws is exempt from taxation is the most productive prop- 
erty in the State. Money or capital employed in purchasing 
notes, bonds, and mortgages, in buying and selling money and 
exchange, in various kinds of traffic, and manufacturing opera- 
tions, in ships, vessels, and steamboats on the lakes and on the 
Ohio River, in the furniture of extensive hotels and taverns, 
stage-coaches, and horses, may be taken as specimens of this 
class of property; and no good reason can, in the opinion of 
the committee, be assigned for exempting this property from 
taxation. Costly furniture, although producing no income, 
may be considered as indicative of wealth of the owner and 
his ability to pay taxes ; and as a luxury, has ever been con- 
sidered, by enlightened legislators, a proper object for tax- 
ation. 

" Nor is it easy to discover a satisfactory reason for continu- 
ing to tax property vested in horses and cattle and permitting 
that vested in sheep and swine to escape. If it he said that 
hogs are fattened on the annual products of farms which are 
taxed, and that therefore the hogs themselves should not be 
taxed, it may be replied with equal force that cattle and 
horses are also raised and fed on the yearly products of farms. 

"The taxation of all the property of the State, both real 
and personal, execept such as from reasons of public policy 
may be exempted, according to the true value thereof, is the 
only just, because it is the only equal, mode of levying taxes. 
The adoption of this great principle into our revenue laws, 
while it will add largely to the apparent value of taxable 

146 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

property of the State, and will provide the means for such an 
increase of the annual revenues of the State as will avoid the 
danger of a failure to pay the interest on our public debt, 
will to a considerable extent relieve those who now pay the 
principal part of the taxes. The taxes paid by the owners of 
land, and especially of real estate in towns, will, in the ag- 
gregate, be greatly diminished; and this deficiency will be 
more than made up by taxes levied on property which at pres- 
ent pays little or nothing. 

Each of these reports was carefully prepared for a 
specific purpose ; the first to demonstrate the necessity 
of changing the present policy, by showing that its end 
was inevitable bankruptcy ; the second, to show with 
equal clearness that to require all the property in the 
State, both real and personal, to bear a portion of the 
public burden, according to its true value, is the only 
just and equitable mode of taxation ; and that by adopt- 
ing this mode the duplicate will be increased so as to 
render the share of each comparatively small, and at the 
same time produce enough revenue to discharge all the 
liabilities accruing under the State government. They 
aided very much in preparing the public mind for the 
radical change which was so necessary, and also in some 
degree directed attention to this subject in the selection 
of candidates for the next General Assembly. A por- 
tion of the members of each branch were selected for 
the purpose of aiding in accomplishing the end suggested. 
Many also were selected, as the proceedings too clearly 
show, for the purpose of defeating every effort of the 
kind, and even to embarrass the State in the payment of 
its accruing liabilities. 

147 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

EQUALIZATION OF THE TAXES. 

Continued financial troubles. — Mr. Kelley's proposal for equal- 
ization of the taxes. — A bold step. — Mr. Edgerton's speech. — 
Mr. Kelley's reply. — His resolution adopted. — The contest con- 
tinued. 



When the Legislature assembled in December, 1845, it 
soon became evident that the same spirit which animated 
a portion of the members of the Legislature of 1841-2 to 
advocate repudiation, and to endeavor to prevent the pay- 
ment of the liabilities of the State, to cry down and depress 
the value of State stocks until they could hardly be sold at 
any price, was to be exhibited anew in complaints that 
stocks were sacrificed in order to pay the liabilities of 
the State and save its credit and honor. The same 
spirit induced members not only to complain of such 
sales, but also to make use of them as an argument 
against any material change in the revenue laws. It ex- 
hibited itself in an unwillingness to provide for the pub- 
lic indebtedness, notwithstanding a considerable portion 
of it was created and used for the construction of canals 
which were then yielding a large net revenue to the 
State. Those who were imbued with this spirit were 
bitterly hostile to all chartered banks, and declared 
both a willingness and a desire to destroy the value of 
State stocks, that they might by such means destroy the 

148 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

banks. In order to illustrate the feeling which existed 
in regard to the banks and State stocks, and which cul- 
minated in a formidable and violent opposition to the 
proposed change in the revenue laws, it is only necessary 
to introduce some of the debates which preceded the in- 
troduction of the bill for that purpose. 

On the fourth day of the session Mr. Kelley, from the 
committee on finance, introduced a preamble and a joint 
resolution, reciting that a revenue sufficient to defray 
the expenses of the State and of counties and townships, 
to support schools and the poor, and to pay the interest 
on the public debt, requires the imposition of heavy 
taxes ; that the present system is grossly unequal, and 
fails to apportion the public burdens among the people 
in the ratio of their property, or of their ability to pay 
taxes ; and that the exigencies of the State, as well as 
equal justice to its citizens, requires the adoption of a 
system more equal in its operations and capable of pro- 
ducing more revenue ; therefore, 

"Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives, That it 
is expedient, at the present session of the General Assembly, 
to adopt a system of taxation that will impose upon all the 
property of the State, both real and personal, except such as 
shall be expressly exempted by law, according to its true 
value, an equal per centum of taxation." 

This resolution was introduced in order to procure in 
advance the adoption of a principle upon which a bill 
might be based. It should be borne in mind, as has been 
stated, that previous to this time the burden of taxation 

149 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

was borne by real estate and a few specified items of 
personalty. Realty sustained most of the burden. The 
principle set forth in the resolution as the proper basis 
of taxation had not then been adopted and enacted into 
a law in any State or nation. 

We have been living under revenue laws substantially 
copied from the one adopted at this session more than 
forty years, and few of the present inhabitants are 
familiar with any other rule of taxation, and can hardly 
imagine that any other could be seriously entertained. 
The subject was then, as it is now, a delicate one, and 
the public was very sensitive in regard to it. It there- 
fore required the preliminary steps, which were adopted 
the previous session, to prepare the public for the adop- 
tion of a plan for the accomplishment of what is now re- 
garded as a financial system combining justice, equality, 
and efficiency more perfectly than any other, and as set- 
tling more clearly than any other the great problem of 
taxation. It was then a bold step to take. A bold man 
took it, in the presence of the fiercest partisan opposi- 
tion, which aimed, by defeating it, to break down the 
State credit, and with it our banking and monetary 
system. 

The resolution relating to taxation being before the 
Senate on the 10th of December, the following was 
offered by Mr. Edgerton as an addition : 

"Resolved, That all loans made by the several banking in- 
stitutions in this State shall be taxed as money at interest, the 
same as money loaned by individuals." 

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Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

This addition gave rise to an animated discussion. 
The portions of it and of other discussions which follow 
are copied from the report of them in the Ohio State 
Journal. It is due to Mr. Kelley to add that he seldom 
spoke from notes, and rarely revised the report of his 
speeches. 

" Mr. EdgertoD said he perceived that the Whig party had 
got itself into a dilemma from which it could not extricate 
itself without the aid of the Democratic party, and he hoped 
such aid would not be given. The time has arrived wheu we 
must increase the per centum on the grand levy, or bring new 
objects of taxation upon the list, or else the State must re- 
pudiate. By the legislation of last winter, you have put it out 
of our power to tax banks except upon their profits, while in- 
dividuals are taxed upon their property. From present indi- 
cations, it appears that no ad valorem law can be passed at this 
session without some Democratic votes, and I believe there is 
not a Democrat in the Legislature who will vote for the propo- 
sition before the Senate, unless the banking institutions are 
placed upon the same footing as individuals. The Senator 
from Muskingum thinks the passage of this resolution would 
have a favorable [an unfavorable] influence upon the credit 
of the State, and the price of its stocks. If by any effort 

ON MY PART I COULD DEPRECIATE THE VALUE OF OUR STATE 
STOCKS IN THE EASTERN MARKETS, I WOULD CERTAINLY DO 

so, because these banks are based upon those stocks, and if the State 
stocks go down, so must the banks" 

" Mr. Kelley said he had endeavored to obtain the floor be- 
fore his young friend from the north-west made his second 
speech on the same question, but he had failed in catching 
the speakers eye. He now wished to call the attention of the 
Senate to sentiments and motives which he had been aston- 
ished to hear that Senator [Mr. Edgerton] advance. He did 
not wish to misrepresent the Senator, and if, in reciting the 
substance of what he said, he did not do it correctly, he asked 
the Senator to correct him. ' I understand the gentleman to 
say,' said Mr. Kelley, ' that the party in the majority on the 
floor were in a dilemma. That the revenue was inadequate 
to pay the interest on the State debt. That the revenne must 

151 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

be increased, or repudiation would be the inevitable result. 
That the majority dare not increase the per centum of tax on 
the grand levy as it now stands, for that would prostrate the 
party. That they therefore sought to adopt a more just and 
equal system, and increase the amount of taxable property by 
requiring all the property of the State to be entered on the 
grand list at its true value. That this could not be done be- 
cause the law creating the banks had provided for taxing 
them on their profits, and it was out of our power now to 
place the bank capital on the same footing as other property. 
It would be changing the contract, and, therefore, would be 
unconstitutional. That he and he hoped his political friends 
would vote for no tax law that did not place bank capital on 
the same footing as other property. That he understood some 
of the Whigs would not vote for this proposed system, and it 
needed Democratic votes to carry the measure, and, if repudi- 
ation was the result, the Whigs might thank themselves for it. 
They had tied their own hands, and he [Mr. Edgerton] ap- 
peared to exult, to feel pleasure, in anticipating the result. 

" 'Am I right? ' said Mr. K. 

'"Exactly so,' said Mr. E. 

" 'I must then,' said Mr. Kelley, ' express my deep regret, 
as well as astonishment, at hearing such sentiments avowed on 
tins floor. I will give the gentleman credit for the frank 
avowal of his views, while I can not withhold my deep de- 
testation of his doctrines. He is willing to see the public 
faith violated, the credit of the State prostrated, its prosperity 
blighted, the deep and damning stain of repudiation forever 
stamped upon her now fair reputation, that the party to which 
he belongs, and which has lost its ascendency by its own rash- 
ness, may be again brought into power.' 

"'I will not,' said Mr. Kelley, 'condemn him, but if I 
thought myself capable of entertaining such sentiments, I 
should despise and detest myself, I should think I ought to be 
shunned by every honest man, scouted from society, and 
driven from the State.' 

" The Senator had expressed a wish to see the stocks of the 
State rendered worthless, so that the banks organized under 
the law of last winter, which were entirely based on those 
stocks, might be prostrated. The gentleman has fallen into 
an error in point of fact, but seven of the twenty-three banks 
organized under that law were based on those stocks. 

" The Senator said he would even go further; he would as- 

152 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

sist in depreciating State stocks so as to break down the banks 
founded on them. ' Now,' said Mr. Kelley, 'let us see what 
would be the effect of rendering this State stock worthless. 
It is pledged with the Treasurer of State as security for the 
redemption of circulating notes of the banks. Take away 
the security, or render it worthless, and what is the probable 
consequence ? The money falls dead in the hands of the 
holders, in the hands of the poor laborer, who made it to pur- 
chase clothes and food for his family, bread for his children. 
And is this the result which the gentleman seeks to produce ? 
Is this his Democracy, his love for the people ? If it is, he 
has a different mode of showing his love for the people from 
that which animates my bosom.'" 

The discussion of the resolution was continued by dif- 
ferent members, and embraced in its range the whole 
subject of taxation, and Mr. Kelley closed it in a speech 
in which he recapitulated what is contained in the report 
at the previous session, established, by unquestionable 
statistics, the inequalities which resulted from the existing 
system and laws, and from the United States census re- 
turns of 1840, and other sources, demonstrated that the 
real and personal property which ought to be taxed in the 
State amounted, at its fair value, to at least five hundred 
and twenty-six millions of dollars, instead of $144,160,469, 
the taxable value as returned that year, and then pro- 
ceeded : 

' ' If then the absolute necessity of increasing our revenues and 
the obviously unjust operation of the present tax law demand 
a change of the system, or such modifications as will make it 
more productive and less unequal in its operation, shall we at 
once found it on principles which all agree are the most cor- 
rect and equitable, adopt the only system by which we can 
impose upon every citizen an equal share of the public bur- 
den in proportion to his ability to sustain it? or shall we 
attempt to patch up a law already incongruous and obscure 

153 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

in its provisions in consequence of the loose manner in which 
it was drawn and the frequent changes it has undergone, 
founded too upon principles so manifestly unjust, because un- 
equal in their operation, as to form the subject of complaint 
throughout every section of the State?" 

" He had no hesitation in saying that the first of these al- 
ternatives should be adopted. . . . 

" If then it be right, if it be necessary to adopt a more 
equitable system of taxation — as I trust every one is con- 
vinced it is — it remains to inquire, when shall it be done? 
To this I answer without the least hesitation, now is the 
proper time. It is never too early to do right — to redress 
a wrong. I know, as well as any man, the difficulties 
which surround this object — I am fully aware of the sensi- 
tiveness of the people upon the subject of taxation — and how 
easily the most just and equal law for levying the tax can be 
misrepresented by the unprincipled and designing demagogue. 
I know there are some who fear to jeopardize their popularity 
by voting for any law upon the subject of taxes, unless it be to 
reduce them. But I have yet to learn that the people are so 
destitute of intelligence, so lost to all sense of justice, as to 
condemn their agents, when, with a single eye to the public 
good, forgetting their party predelictious, they fearlessly do 
that which is right in itself, and which is imperiously de- 
manded by the necessities of the treasury. 

"Let us no longer rest in false security; let us no longer 
slumber on the brink of repudiation ; but rouse ourselves, and 
like men boldly look the danger in the face, and prepare to 
avert that worst of all calamities which can befall a State — 
the loss of its character for punctuality, for integrity, and for 
honor. It is vain to shut our eyes to the fact that we can not 
long continue our downward course, sinking year after year 
deeper and deeper in debt, without at last arriving at that 
lowest point of degradation — repudiation." 

Mr. Kelley here asked the indulgence of the committee 
to read a short extract from a foreign paper, the London 
Times. 

A writer in that paper, after stating his loss on Illinois 
bonds, adds : 

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Alfred Kelley ; his Life and WorJc. 

" When my boy asks me why he is stinted of the education 
which he had a right to expect from me, what can I answer 
save ' the Americans have robbed me ?' And thus will the 
shame and sorrow pass on to another generation. The loss is 
written off in my ledger, but the disappointment of my hopes 
in the young race is indelible, and the wrong is irreparable. 
The Americans may proceed in a successful course of com- 
mercial and political triumph ; they may cover continents 
with their race and the ocean with their fleets, but the stain 
remains fixed and forever. They are not an honest people ; 
and, believe me, it is not our writers but their swindlers which 
have brought on them, nationally and individually, the con- 
tempt of the world. Their bonds are driven from the Bourse, 
and one is now as much startled at meeting an American 
in society, as to hear of Robert Macaire at Almack's." 

" We may affect to disregard the opinion of other nations," 
continued Mr. Kelley, " but it is all affectation. We do and 
we should value the good opinion of other civilized nations 
with whom we hold commercial and friendly intercourse ; 
and, when we shall be sunk so low as to disregard the good 
opinion of the Christian world, we shall indeed have arrived 
at a low state of moral degradation. 

"In years gone by, as the Senator from Clermont who acted 
with him on that occasion would bear witness," said Mr. 
Kelley, " he had raised his warning voice in the other branch 
of the General Assembly against the reckless expenditure of 
money on works which the public good did not then demand, 
and which, if undertaken at all, should have been postponed 
until the State was able to prosecute them. He had then 
told the House that their hands must be stayed, or bankruptcy 
would be the result. But his warning had been disregarded ; 
selfish views and local interests had prevailed ; and the conse- 
quence w T as a State debt of nearly tw r enty millions. He could 
tell how the public money had been squandered, of the neglect 
and unfaithfulness, not to say the downright dishonesty, of 
public agents, but this was not the time nor the occasion. 
We have now," said Mr. Kelley, " to deal with the present 
and to look out for the future, not mourn over the past. 
Let us not fear to examine our condition, but like men probe 
the wound to the bottom, and fearlessly apply the remedy. 
But if this course shall not be adopted, if others shall timidly 
shrink from the performance of their duty, if repudiation 

155 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

shall envelope our beloved State in a mantle of shame, driv- 
ing our most worth)'- citizens from our borders, and preventing 
from coming among us all who are unwilling to share the 
ignominy of violated public faith, I, at least, will wash my 
hands of -the foul stain. I will not stand tamely and see 
the deed committed." 

The addition proposed by Mr. Edgerton was then re- 
jected, and the preamble and resolution offered by Mr. 
Kelley in behalf of the finance committee were adopted. 

On the 29th of December, Mr. Edgerton offered the 
following preamble and resolution, occasioning a dis- 
cussion in which Mr. Kelley for the first time in his 
own behalf stated the circumstances under which the 
bonds of the State were sold at less than par, and also 
under which he had pledged his individual credit to more 
than he was worth in order to save the State from pro- 
test and dishonor. The discussion also discloses the 
bitter hostility he afterward encountered during the 
passage of the bill to tax all property in the State ac- 
cording to its value : 

" Whereas, the Governor of Ohio, in his last annual Mess- 
age to this General Assembly, says that arrangements have 
already been made to pay the liabilities of the State falling 
due in January and July next; and, whereas, the Canal Fund 
Commissioners, as appears by their report, bearing date the 
26th inst., have been forced to make temporary loans to the 
amount of $363,564.40, to pay the interest on the State debt 
due on the 1st of January next, without making any pro- 
vision for the July interest, no part of which loans are re- 
ported to the Auditor of State, nor by him embodied in his 
annual report; and, whereas, the Treasurer of State has 
issued circulars calling upon the several County Treasurers 
for the State's proportion of the taxes of 1845, collected by 
them, to be remitted to the Treasurer of State in order to 
meet the January interest; and, whereas, these facts seem to 

156 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

contradict the statement made by the Governor that arrange- 
ments had already been made to pay the July interest; 
therefore, 

"Resolved, that the Governor be and hereby is requested 
to report to the Senate, at his earliest convenience, by whom 
and with whom the arrangements alluded to were made, and 
such other matters connected therewith as will fully advise 
the Senate of the nature of the transaction." 

" Mr. Kelley moved to lay the resolution on the table. 

" He said the statement of the finances of the State had 
gone out. So much as is necessary or material to be known 
is known. He did not see the necessity for this continued 
agitation of this matter. The gentleman offering this resolu- 
tion had declared to the Senate and the world that if by any 
act of his he could reduce the value of the State stocks so as 
to break down the banks which held them as securities, he 
would do so. To accomplish this object was, perhaps, his 
motive for agitation. Certainly no good could result from it. 

" The gentleman intimates, by his resolution, that the 
statements of the Governor are incorrect, or that he had put 
forward false statements. The Governor had undoubtedly 
based his remarks upon the statements of the officers of the 
State; and the detailed information called for was probably 
not in his possession. The Governor had announced that 
arrangements had been made to meet the interest soon falling 
due on the State debt. 

"He [Mr. Kelley] was prepared to say that positive pro- 
visions had been made for the payment of the January in- 
terest." 

[Mr. Edgerton said that he did not doubt that. He 
wished to know* particularly about the July interest. The 
Governor stated that arrangements had been made for the 
payment of that.] 

"Arrangements" continued Mr. Kelley. "This is a very 
comprehensive word. It was w T ell known that it was 
frequently necessary to anticipate the revenues of the State 
for the purpose of collecting in time the money necessary to 
meet its liabilities. The canal tolls were sometimes rendered 
available before the time of their coming regularly into the 
treasury. So with other resources of the State. It might be 
that arrangements of this character were in progress. 

" He was not prepared to say what the arrangements for 

157 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

meeting the July interest were. He presumed the officers of 
the State spoke advisedly when they affirmed that they were 
in progress. 

" If the Auditor is correct, the prompt payment of the July 
interest is certain. Why then waste time in inquiries such as 
these? Why continue to agitate the public mind? He had 
stated on a former occasion the actual financial condition of 
the State, and what he couceived to be the true policy of the 
State in regard to it. The adoption of that policy would 
place us beyond the necessity of any temporizing expedients. 
The perpetual agitation of the financial condition of the State 
' here may serve to depress our stocks, and make them foot- 
balls of the dealers in stocks. It could serve no other pur- 
pose. He was prepared to go as far as any man to place this 
matter right and apply the legitimate remedy. But if this 
matter was to be brought up so often, it might be well to in- 
quire into the origin of these deficiencies, which were so fruit- 
ful a source of contention. Unquestionably the debt had 
been greatly increased by undertaking the construction of 
Public Works, which should not have been undertaken, at 
least at the time they were undertaken, and which probably 
would not have been undertaken had wise councils pre- 
vailed. What party was in the majority at that period ? A 
correct answer would doubtless designate the party which was 
responsible for a large proportion of the public indebtedness. 

" We may go one step further, and contrast the cost of the 
earlier works of improvement with the later ones. The 
latter, though not nearly as well constructed, cost two and a 
half times as much as the former. Under the direction and 
control of what party were these w T orks carried on? It re- 
quired no one very deeply versed in our political history to 
tell. 

"Now, let us look a little further. The Auditor of State 
is directed to levy sufficient tax to meet the liabilities of the 
State. The Auditors immediately preceding the present in- 
cumbent, who has held his office scarcely a twelve-month, in 
neglect of their duty, had allowed the State to run behind 
to the amount of $1,500,000. It was this deficiency, thus 
allowed to accumulate, that caused the embarrassments in 
which the State was not long since involved. The Fund 
Commissioners had no power to levy taxes or collect tolls. 
That was a power intrusted to others. Their only resource 
was to dispose of an amount of the stocks of the State, as the 

158 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

law authorized them. This they did, and at considerable 
loss. 

"The indebtedness was accumulated, then, first, by the 
construction of works not then called for, if ever ; second, 
by a gross want of economy in public officers who had man- 
aged these works ; and, third, by the neglect of the Auditors 
to do their duty. 

"Now, then, w T hat is to be done? Certainly, to provide 
for the future, not to go back to say who did this or that, or 
to decide who was most to blame. It was useless to refer to 
the past, unless to take warning from its errors. 

" The passage of the resolutions like the one pending could 
have no good effect. The agitation which it would keep up 
would tend to depress the credit of the State. He hoped the 
resolution would lie on the table. 

"Mr. Edgerton said he supposed his resolution would pro- 
voke discussion. It had done so. He was aware that certain 
charges had been made against him, both in and out of the 
Senate, of an intention to reduce the stocks and invalidate 
the credit of the State. He understood his own objects, and 
knew the tendency of his resolution. He questioned whether 
any provision had been made for paying the July interest, 
notwithstanding the statement of the Governor's message 
that arrangements were made to meet that interest. He 
thought there was an intention to cloak up the real condition 
of the State. The Canal Fund Commissioners report that 
they have borrowed $364,000. The Treasurer has called 
upon the county treasurers for the State tax; and this is all 
to meet the January interest. 

" Can it be true, uuder these circumstances, that arrange- 
ments are made to meet the interest in July? He believed 
the Governor had been misinformed by somebody. If his in- 
quiry, by unveiling our actual condition, depreciated the 
stocks of the State, let it be so ; all the better. 

"If the fact as stated by the Governor is correct, the ar- 
rangement is dependent upon loans from the banks, which 
loans are contingent upon the passage of the contemplated 
bill to adopt a system of taxation which shall provide addi- 
tional revenue to the State. He apprehended this was the 
arrangement referred to, and to ascertain if he was correct 
was one object of his inquiry. 

" There was a feature in the past financial history of the 
State which was an inducement for him to act in the matter. 

159 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

The State had always been dependent on the banks; they had 
been linked together in their policy. To break up this de- 
pendency was one of his primary objects. The banks had 
always made their greatest profits out. of the poverty of the 
State. 

" The gentleman (Mr. Kelley) had alluded to the origin of 
the indebtedness of the State. There was one fact which he 
would like to mention in reply. He (Mr. Kelley) and others 
had sold the stocks of the State at sacrifices amounting to 
nearly $500,000. 

" [Mr. Edgerton here proceeded to give certain statistics.] 
"Those statistics clearly establish that, in 1841-2, and 
when Mr. Kelley was Canal Fund Commissioner, State stocks 
were sold — 

" The par value of which was . . $1,487,200 00 

" The amount received was . . . 1,031,711 78 



" The loss of the State was . . . $455,488 22 

" He thought the ' simplest history of these transactions 
were their best analogy [sic.].' 

"It was stated, indeed, that these sacrifices were neces- 
sary; but, necessary or not, it could not be denied that the 
State had lost heavy amounts of money by these transactions. 
'That, 7 continued Mr. Edgerton, ' can not be charged upon us 
of the minority.' 

"But who profited by the State loss? The bankers. It 
was they who fattened and grew rich upon the losses of the 
State. And against a system which permitted of this con- 
nection and these results he would wage an eternal warfare, 
' cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.' 

" He would again inquire, in conclusion, how the June 
and July obligations of the State were to be met ? He could 
conceive of no way, unless as he had already explaiued by an 
understanding with the banks, based upon the contingency of 
the passage of the proposed tax law. He hoped, by the pass- 
age of his resolution, to ascertain the facts in this matter — 
whatever effect their development might have upon stocks or 
credit." 

" Mr. Kelley said he did not propose to follow the gentle- 
man in a reply. He [Mr. Edgerton] had, as was quite com- 
mon with others of the same party, taken occasion to taunt 
him [Mr. Kelley] with having sold the stocks of the State at 

160 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

less than their face value. He admitted it, he had never 
concealed it ; and the circumstances attending that sale were 
before the world, and he was willing to submit his conduct to 
its judgment. When the credit of the State was tottering 
almost to its overthrow, at a time of unexampled depression 
in the financial world, when the stocks of the General Gov- 
ernment could find no sale in the market, and when the bonds 
of the great and rich State of New York would not bring sev- 
enty-five cents on the dollar in her own commercial metropolis, 
and when she was forced to permit her obligations to fall due, 
from utter inability to meet them at that time, he had, in 
conjunction with those who acted with him, resorted to the 
only means which was left to save the honor of the State, 
which means, he might add, they were authorized to resort 
to, by a law of the State passed to meet that special emergency. 
And at that time, and under these circumstances, he became 
personally responsible in behalf of the State for more than 
he was worth, in order that she might pass safely through her 
severest trial. And he had done so, too, when he was warned 
by gentlemen of high standing among his political opponents, 
to beware how he committed himself, because there were 
those of his foes who would willingly have the credit of the 
State prostrated, if thereby Alfred Kelley could be involved 
in ruin. There were those who would have gloried in the lost 
honor of the State, in her disgrace and misfortune, if he had 
fallen with her. 

" This was done at a time, also, when repudiation was 
talked of in this capital, and when a proposition was pending 
to take away from the Auditor his power to levy these taxes 
upon which the financial safety of the State depended. At a 
time, too, when a 'protege of a man high in public station, a 
man who was called the Jupiter Tonans, the Thunderer of the 
opposing party, wrote to an editor in the City of New York, 
stating that the doctrine of repudiation was gaining ground, 
and had infected the Legislature, and contemplating a total 
failure of the State to meet her obligations. 

"He had no occasion to regret his conduct at that time 
and under these circumstance. On the contrary he gloried in 
what he had done. He thought it neither just nor magnani- 
mous in opponents to taunt him as having acted a dishonor- 
able part. It came with an ill grace from them who had 
never raised a finger in behalf of the State, to accuse him 
of dereliction of duty, and of having trifled with the interests 

11 161 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

of the com mou wealth. It was true he had made sacrifices 
to save the credit of the State, aud none could regret the ne- 
cessity more than he did. They were made to avert great 
and overwhelming calamities. The report of the commission- 
ers appointed to examine the transactions of the Fund Com- 
missioners would place his conduct in its proper light, and ex- 
culpated him from all censure. 

" Mr. Kelley recommended those who were so free in their 
condemnation to look back and see by whose acts the sacri- 
fices, so often alluded to, were made necessary. They should 
show that something better could have been done, before 
passing their censure so freely. 

" In respect to this resolution, he could only repeat that he 
considered its adoption entirely unnecessary for any good pur- 
pose. The gentleman says he shall continue the agitation of 
this matter day after day. What is his object, unless it be 
the one he so boldly avowed a few days ago? He then de- 
clared that if by any act of his he could reduce the value of 
the stocks of the State he would do so. Was not this one of 
the " acts ?" Did the gentleman expect that his party would 
be enabled to get into power by this course ? Perhaps so. 
But he could tell the gentlemen that power gained by such 
means would be vain to those who gained it. 

" They would reign over a prostrated, desolated State. If 
the gentleman chose to bring this subject up daily as he 
threatens to do, he [Mr. Kelley] could say that there was a 
power here to put it down as otten." 

After further discussion the preamble and resolution 
were indefinitely postponed. 

162 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PASSAGE OF THE TAX LAW. 

Mr. Kelley's speech. — Passage of the bill in the Senate. — Its 
passage in the House. — Features of the law. — The succeeding 
political controversy over it. — Its success and effect. 



The reports and discussions on the general subject had 
prepared, as far as such proceedings could do so, both 
the public and the Legislature for the bill which was 
introduced into the Senate on the 6th of January, 1846. 

The hostility which had been previously manifested in 
the Senate, and in some of the public prints, continued 
with the same if not with increased intensity. That 
hostility was political, and regardless of the public good. 
It proceeded from the motives and desires of the partisan 
and mere politician, and was not worthy of statesmen. 
A persistent effort was made to render the passage of 
the bill a party question. During its progress through 
the Senate many amendments were offered with a view 
solely to their political effect. And no opportunity was 
neglected to ridicule it, or render it obnoxious to the 
public. Many amendments in its details were proposed 
and adopted, and on the thirteenth of February, when 
it was ready for a final vote, a motion was made to post- 
pone its further consideration until the next December. 

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Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

Upon this motion Mr. Kelley made the following re- 
marks : 

" We are now asked," said Mr. Kelley, "to postpone this 
bill until the first Monday in December next; and are told as 
a reason for adopting this course, ' that this is an important 
measure, aud should be well considered ; we are told that the 
people should have a chance to examine and express their 
opinions on it.' 

" It is true, said Mr. Kelley, " this is an important measure. 
It is true, too, that it is a necessary measure. But has it 
not been long agitated and carefully considered? Have not 
our State Auditors, for the last five or six years in succession, 
brought this subject before the Legislature and the people of 
the State urging the adoption of an ad valorem system of 
taxation, as the only system from which an adequate revenue 
can be raised, without injustice and oppression to a large por- 
tion of the tax-payers? All this has been repeatedly done 
by the principal financial officer of the State, the Auditor ; a 
gentleman of the same political party as the senator who has 
made this motion to postpone. That gentleman [Mr. Brough], 
with the assistance of others whom he thought competent to 
advise on the subject, drew up a tax bill upon the same 
principles as the one pending before the Senate. That bill 
was presented by the committee of finance of the other House 
at the session before the last, and after some consideration, it 
was' postponed to the first Monday of December then next. 
At the last session the same bill was reported on leave in 
the Senate; it was referred to the committee on finance, who 
amended its details and made a report to the Senate urging 
the propriety and necessity of its passage. That report had 
been before the people for more than a year, and its argu- 
ments had remained uncontroverted. It had received at 
least the tacit assent of the people. ' But the Senate, for 
want of time maturely to consider it and perfect its details, 
as was then said, had postponed it until the present session. 
At an early day of the present session the subject was again 
taken up, and the main principle contained in the bill now 
before us was deliberately adopted by the Senate in the form 
of a resolution ; which, in effect, instructed the committee to 
introduce a bill to carry out that great principle, namely: 
To tax property according to its true value. 

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Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

"A bill was accordingly introduced ; it was carefully con- 
sidered in all its details; it was recommitted to reconcile 
all conflicting opinions as to some of its details ; those con- 
flicting opinions had been reconciled ; the bill had been re- 
ported back, again carefully considered and amended by the 
Senate ; and now, when it was about to pass, we are asked 
to postpone it till the first Monday in December next. 

" ' To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,' says Shakes- 
peare, ' creeps on its petty pace from day to day to the last 
syllable of recorded time.' 'The first Monday of December 
next,' and ' the first Monday of December .next,' and ' the 
first Monday of December next,' to the end of time, is, ac- 
cording to the senator's theory, the proper time for adopting 
a great principle in adjusting the public burdens to the 
shoulders of the people which all admit to be right and 
just. 

"I have been taught that it is never too early to do 
right, never too soon to redress a wrong. That a large por- 
tion of the tax-payers of the State are wronged, grievously 
wronged, by oppressive taxation, while others, much more 
able to pay taxes, are either partly or wholly exempt, is a fact 
no one who has any knowledge of the subject will have the 
hardihood to deny. 

"And these are not the only ones who are wronged — no, 
Mr. Speaker, notwithstanding you have for years applied the 
moneys arising from the sales of school lands to pay the in- 
terest on the public debt, while you are, every time that in- 
terest becomes due, compelled to borrow large sums to pay 
that interest, and anticipate all your forthcoming revenues 
arising from tolls and taxes, you can not pay the laborers 
who keep your public works in repair. The State does not 
keep its faith with those who labor for the public, who earn 
their daily bread by the sweat of their brows. They come to 
the State Treasury; they knock at the door; they are ad- 
mitted ; but the treasury is empty. They go away disappointed. 
They come again, but still with the same result until ' hope 
deferred maketh the heart sick.' Such things ought not 
to be." 

Mr. Kelley here read part of a letter which he had 
received in behalf of two honest, hard working men, who 
had a claim of nine months' standing for work on the 

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Alfred KeUey ; Ms Life and Work. 

Ohio Canal on which they had received an order on the 
State Treasury more than six months ago, for upward 
of $4,000 ; and whose property, the writer said, must be 
sacrificed unless they could get the money. This, said 
Mr. KeUey, is only one of the numerous cases of a simi- 
lar character that had come to his knowledge. 

" It is said we can get along and pay the interest on our 
public debt even'if we do not revise our revenue laws. True, 
we may for a time longer go halting and limping along, as 
w r e have been going for some six years past, falling behind- 
hand some two or three hundred thousand dollars annually, 
and thus add this much yearly to our public debt. We may 
still live ' at this poor dying rate ' a little longer, if times are 
in other respects prosperous and the money market easy. Or 
we may levy a greater per centum of tax on the taxable 
property of the State as it now stands on the grand levy. 
But, is it right, is it just, to do so? Is it right to make one 
man pay ten times as much tax on a piece of property as is 
paid by his neighbor on another piece of equal value ? If 
taxes were merely nominal, this inequality would be a matter 
of comparatively small moment. 

" But, taxed as we are, in many instances, to nearly the 
entire income of the property taxed, it is of the last conse- 
quence that taxes should be made to bear as equally as possible 
on all the taxable property of the State. It is wrong, it is 
unjust, it is oppressive, that one man should be borne down to 
the earth, literally crushed with taxes while his neighbor 
more wealthy and more able to pay than himself should enjoy 
almost an immunity from taxation. 

" Let it not be said that the people have not considered 
this subject. They have considered it. It has been presented 
to them for years. They have been informed of the de- 
ranged condition of our finances, of the necessity of increas- 
ing our revenue, of the unequal operation of our present sys- 
tem, and of the plan now under consideration. They are too 
intelligent not to see the importance, the justice, the necessity, 
of the proposed change. They are too patriotic, too honest, 
not to be willing to bear each a fair proportion of the public 
burdens. And they will not condemn their representatives 

166 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

for promptly, honestly, and fearlessly doing their duty. I at 
least, for one, am prepared to appeal to them for the rectitude 
of my intentions, and the correctness of my actions in this 
matter. 

" ' True it is,' said Mr. Kelley, ' some who now pay less 
than their share, and whose tax will be increased by the oper- 
ations of this bill, may complain. But of what will they com- 
plain ? They will complain that they are now required to bear a 
just share of the public burdens from which they have heretofore es- 
caped. Can any one, not lost to all sense of justice, not lost 
to all shame, look an honest man in the face and utter this 
complaint ? 

" Will it be said that this system of taxation, if carried 
into operation, will not immediately relieve the Treasury of 
the State from its embarrassment ? I do not expect this 
remedy will work the instantaneous cure of a long standing 
disease, but it will clear the way and lay the foundation of a 
system that will give adequate and permanent relief. It will, 
when in full operation, enable us to raise a revenue sufficient 
to put a stop to further accumulation of debt, to pay interest, 
and gradually to regain the ground we have lost, and that 
too, with far less oppression to the great mass of tax-payers 
than the present laws impose on them. It will form a sub- 
stantial basis on which we can safely predicate measures for 
temporary relief. 

"All agree that it is both unwise and unsafe to surfer the 
large deficit, which has for some years existed, longer to con- 
tinue, that we should no louger add interest to principal, and 
thus roll up the sum of the State debt, and all agree that 
something must therefore be done. If to avoid the manifest 
injustice of adding an additional per centum of tax on the 
property of the State, as now listed and valued, we resort to 
the expedient of bringing on to the grand list items of prop- 
erty hitherto exempt from taxation, as for example, sheep and 
hogs, will not the owners of these articles have just cause of 
complaint? May they not with reason ask, 'why is our 
property siugled out from the great mass that has heretofore 
been exempt from taxation, and made to bear alone the addi- 
tional burden it has been found necessary to impose ? We 
do not complain that we are taxed, for this w T e admit is neces- 
sary, but we complain that we are unequally taxed, for this is 
not necessary.' 

" But there is another objection to this course. The taxes 

167 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

of the State have heretofore borne hardest on the great farm- 
ing interest of the State, for their lands, their houses, and 
their cattle, could not be hid from the eye of the assessor, nor 
could the value of these items be kept a secret in the bosom of 
the owner, and, if we now add hogs and sheep to the present 
list of taxable articles, we increase the burden on this very 
class of our citizens. This would not be right. No, Mr. 
Speaker, let all property be taxed according to its true value, and 
none ivill have a right to complain. 

" It has been apprehended by some that the present bill 
will increase the proportion of the whole taxes of the State 
paid by the farming interest. I have taken much pains to 
ascertain the operations of the bill in this respect, and for this 
purpose I have resorted to official documents to ascertain the 
true value of the various classes of property in the State, 
among which are the returns of the United States Marshal 
who took the census in 1840. I am, myself, pretty extensively 
acquainted with the value of lands and of real property in 
towns in the greater part of the State. And I have compared 
my estimates with the valuation of property in other States 
and towns in the "Union, and, though the table which I now 
present to the Senate does not descend into fractions, and may 
in regard to some items be somewhat erroneous, ^till I am 
confident that it is a near approximation to the truth, and 
that the result will prove that the farming interest will, as a 
ivhole, bear a much smaller share of the public burdens than 
it bears under the existing system of taxation. 

" True, their lands will be valued higher, but the per 
centum of tax levied on that valuation will probably be 
less than one-third of the per centum levied on the present 
valuation ; while their cattle and their horses will, on an aver- 
age, be valued at less per head, and on that valuation will pay 
less than one-third of the tax w T hich they now pay." 

Then follows a table of all the different kinds of prop- 
erty as specified in the bill, with their estimated quan- 
tities and values, the aggregate value being $255,000,000 ; 
and also a separate estimate of the value of the farming 
interest upon which taxes would be levied. Mr. Kelley 

then continued : 

168 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

"It will be observed that the estimate here made of the 
gross value of taxable property in the State falls considerably 
short of the estimate of its true value, which I had the honor 
of presenting to the Senate at an early period of the present 
session. That was an estimate of what I considered its true 
value. 

" This is an estimate of the valuation as I expect it is to be 
taken by the assessors ; for, with whatever honesty and vigi- 
lance they may perform their duty, I expect a considerable 
amount will escape. Besides, it will be borne in mind that 
the exemptions made by the bill, as it now 7 stands, are con- 
siderably greater than those made by the bill as at first 
reported. 

"If it be true, as I have no doubt the event will prove, 
that the farming interest will, under the operation of this bill, 
pay a less proportion of the taxes of the State than hereto- 
fore, the inquiry naturally suggests itself, ' In what manner 
will this deficiency be made up? If this class pays less, what 
ones will pay more ?' 

"I answer, the merchant, the money lender (who, even 
under the law of last session, in a vast number of instances, 
partially escaped, owing to the imperfections of the law and 
want of vigilance in carrying it out), the owner of valuable 
furniture, the ow T ner of watches and pianos, the commission 
merchant, the great manufacturer, the machinist, the owner 
of ships, vessels, and steamboats, the owners of lots and 
houses in some of our largest cities, lease-holders of church 
lands, and many others of lesser note, will pay this additional 
tax and much more. 

"But, Mr. Speaker, let me repeat, something must be done. 
We must either patch up an old structure, resting upon a rot- 
ten, because unjust and unequal, foundation, or we must 
adopt a new one, resting upon the eternal rock of justice. 
We can not escape this responsibility, if we would. And this 
one consideration is sufficient to determine my course, and 
should, I think, be sufficient to determine the course of every 
honest man. It is just; it is right. 

" Let it nt)t be said that we go counter to the wishes of the 
people in passing this bill. It is known throughout the State 
that it has been under consideration nearly the whole session. 
The principles upon which it is founded are also known ; and 
yet we have not received a single remonstrance against its 
passage, but many petitions in its favor. In this case it may 

169 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

be truly said, ' silence gives consent.' A few individuals, who 
fear that they shall be required to pay a little more tax than 
they have heretofore paid — a few who fear, as there are always 
some timid souls who do fear, that to do right may, with some 
selfish people, be unpopular, have undoubtedly written to 
their representatives to oppose the bill. But these letters 
should not be taken as evidence of the wishes of the majority. 
Those who are content with what is proposed to be done say 
nothing; and this class forms an immense majority, while the 
few who, from timidity or from more selfish motives, are op- 
posed to the proposed measure, attempt to manufacture what 
they are pleased to call public sentiment, and instruct their 
representatives accordingly. I, for one, do not feel bound by 
such instructions. I, for one, am prepared to go for a measure 
founded upon the eternal principles of justice— a measure 
which the exigencies of the treasury demand — and fearlessly 
to appeal to an honest and intelligent constituency to sustain 
me in my course. 

The motion to postpone was lost, and the bill passed 
by a vote of 17 to 16, being, with a very few exceptions, 
a party division. 

In the House the same expedients were adopted for 
the purpose of defeating it as were resorted to in the 
Senate ; and obnoxious and incongruous amendments 
were offered to render it unpopular should it become a 
law. In that body it w r as in charge of the Honorable 
Benjamin S. Cowen, the representative of Belmont 
County, who discussed and managed it with marked 
ability. On the 24th of February it passed the House 
with a number of amendments by a vote of 35 to 29, 
also with a few exceptions a party division. The 
amendments were adjusted between the Houses, and the 
bill became a law on the 2d of March, 1846. 

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Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

On that day, for the first time in Ohio, and perhaps in 
any State, it was enacted, 

"That all property, whether real or personal, within this 
State, and the moneys and credits of persons residing therein, 
except such as is hereinafter expressly exempted, shall be 
subject to taxation ; and such property, moneys, and credits, 
or the value thereof, shall be entered on the lists of taxable 
property, for that purpose, in the manner prescribed by this 
act." 

The principal exemptions were public property, burial 
places, property used for public worship, State stocks, 
household and kitchen furniture to the amount of two 
hundred dollars, wearing apparel excluding watches, food 
provided for the family, and farming .and mechanical im- 
plements and tools in actual use ; and each person was 
also allowed to deduct his liabilities from his moneys 
and certain specified credits. The details of the law 
fully carried out and enforced the principle upon which 
it was based, as declared in the first section. 

The contest over this law did not end with its enact- 
ment. During its pendency it was associated with the 
banking law of the previous winter, and the same party 
which opposed the one opposed the other also. The 
revenue law was made the main issue in the campaign 
of 1846 ; and it, with the banking law, was referred to 
by the leading Democratic paper as " the two laws 
against which the Democracy are waging a war of ex- 
termination." The same paper spoke of it also as the 
" plunder law." The banks were called " Kelley's 
swindling shops ; " and " the tax law a failure " was the 

171 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

heading of more than one editorial article. During the 
campaign a paper was printed and circulated, called the 
Tax Killer. The canvass was unusually embittered by 
the most unjustifiable attacks upon the laws, and apply- 
ing the most opprobrious epithets to their author. Not- 
withstanding the extraordinary efforts which were made 
to defeat it, the law was sustained ; and in its practical 
working all the results claimed by its advocates were 
fully realized. 
The total value of taxable property in 1846 

under the old law was . . . $150,293,132 
In 1847, under the new law, it was . $410,763,100 

The personalty in 1846 was . . . $40,352,496 
The personalty in 1847 was $83,564,430 

The aggregate of State taxes levied on 

$150,293,132, in 1846, was . . $1,214,897 

The aggregate of State taxes levied on 

$410,763,100, in 1847, was . . . $1,331,398 
The per cent on the value of taxable prop- 
erty for State purposes in 1846 was . 8 mills. 
The per cent for the same purposes in 1847 

was . . . . . . 2f mills. 

The repeal of the law, or even a modification of its 
principle, was never afterward proposed. That prin- 
ciple was embodied in the constitution of 1851, and 
nearly all the important provisions of the law enacted 
under that constitution are taken from the law of 1846, 
and are still in force. 

The benefit which Ohio has derived from this law is 

172 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

like that which characterizes the results of every act of 
Mr. Kelley's public life. The State has never been em- 
barrassed for the want of funds ; its credit has been 
equal to that of any other State, and even to that of the 
General Government; the debt has been reduced to less 
than four millions after paying all the expenses incident 
to the Rebellion. And, although the law has not al- 
ways been faithfully administered, and taxable property 
has been kept off the duplicate by unworthy devices and 
illegal expedients, still there has been no serious indi- 
vidual oppression or public embarrassment. Above all, 
every tax-payer has been conscious that the credit and 
honor of the State has been above reproach, and also 
that they are beyond the reach of demagogues and secret 
or open enemies. It has outlived its opponents, and is 
an enduring monument to the wisdom and sagacity of its 

author. 

173 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER XV. 

RAILROAD BUILDING. 

The beginning of railroads. — The Columbus and Xenia Rail- 
road. — Selling bonds in New York. — The Cleveland, Columbus 
and Cincinnati Railroad. — The Cleveland, Painesville, and Ash- 
tabula. — Difficulties about gauge. — A new battle of Erie. — A 
strategic movement. — Buying up a right of way. — Mob-law at 
Erie. — Mr. Kellev's " Five Mile Farm." 






Forty years ago the transportation of produce, mer- 
chandise, and passengers in Ohio was almost exclusively 
confined to canals, wagons, and stage-coaches. There 
were but two railroads in the State ; and they were con- 
structed in the rudest form, having strap rails which 
rendered them dangerous as well as rough and uncom- 
fortable for passengers. These roads were from Cincin- 
nati to Xenia and from Springfield to Sandusky. We 
can hardly realize that our great system of railroads in > 
Ohio and in the West was commenced and built up 
within forty years. In 1847 the only public mode of 
traveling in every direction from our capital was by the 
slow and unpleasant stage-coach and along the line of 
the canal ; and a portion of the year the inhabitants re- 
mained at home, on account of the condition of the roads 
and the swollen streams, unless compelled by necessity 
to travel. 

In 1845 a charter was obtained, and a company 

174 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

orgimized, to construct a railway from Columbus to 
Xenia. Some surveys were made and so far completed 
as to be ready for contracts on a part of the line. The 
company as organized was unable to proceed any fur- 
ther, and it was reorganized by changing a portion of 
the Board of Directors and by the election of Mr. Kel- 
ley as its president. He accepted the office, and with 
the aid of the engineer in a short time the route was 
established and the road put under contract. Mr. Kel- 
ley took the bonds of the company to New York, ne- 
gotiated their sale, and procured sufficient money, in ad- 
dition to the proceeds of the stock, to complete and 
equip the road. These were among the first, if not the 
first, western railroad bonds which were sold in New 
York. He was well-known to the capitalists of that 
city, who had unusual confidence in his judgment, and 
felt assured that he would not undertake any enterprise 
unless it was meritorious and was abundant security for 
both the principal and interest of its liabilities. The 
road was finished with the heavy T rail, and was the first 
road upon which that rail was used in Ohio. The road 
was completed and opened for traffic in February, 
1850. 

A few years previous to 1847 a charter was obtained 
and a company formed for the construction of a railway 
from Cleveland to Columbus, under the name of " The 
Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati Railroad Company." 
The incorporators were all or nearly all citizens of Cleve- 
land. Books were opened for stock subscriptions, but a 

175 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

sufficient amount could not be procured to justify the 
commencement of the work. Efforts were made at dif- 
ferent times to procure subscriptions, with but little suc- 
cess. Those who had charge of it made a last and ener- 
getic effort in the summer of 1847, but were as unsuc- 
cessful as they had been previously. It was then pro- 
posed, by some of the ardent friends of the project, that 
Mr. JCelley should be procured to accept the presidency 
of the company. This was mentioned to those who had 
subscribed stock and others, and resulted in additional 
subscriptions to a considerable amount, on condition that 
he should be such president ; some of them remarking 
that if he took charge of it the road would be built, and 
all feeling assured that he would not undertake it unless 
he thought it would be pecuniarily successful. 

About the first of August Mr. Richard Hilliard and 
Judge Thomas M. Kelley, a brother of Alfred Kelley, 
both of Cleveland, were requested by those interested to 
go to Columbus and confer with the latter on the subject. 
They went down, and a long evening was devoted to a 
full discussion of the project, the previous failures, the 
effect of the road if built, and the difficulties which 
had been encountered, and which the committee thought 
insurmountable except by Mr. Kelley. He declined to 
accept the presidency offered to him, on account of his 
long public service, his need of rest, his private affairs 
which had been neglected, and above all his desire to 
spend the remainder of his life with his family. Mrs. 
Kelley made an urgent appeal in her behalf and that of 

176 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

her children that he might be allowed to remain at home. 
The interview was pleasant, though the committee was 
much disappointed ; and, as they parted with Mr. Kelley 
at the door, Mr. Hilliard, grasping his hand, said: a I 
appreciate your reasons for declining our request, and I 
admit we have no claims on you. This project, how- 
ever, is very important to Cleveland and the State, and 
should it fail because you decline to take hold of it, will 
it not be a source of regret the residue of your life ?" 
To which Mr. Kelley replied : " I will see you again in 
the morning." Mr. Hilliard knew that his last appeal 
would have more influence with Mr. Kelley than all 
other considerations combined. 

In' the morning they met, and Mr. Kelley remarked 
that the subject of their conversation the evening before 
had occasioned him much thought and anxiety during 
the night, and he had made up his mind that it was his 
duty to yield to their request. 

The committee returned to Cleveland ; the president 
then in office resigned ; and on the 13th of August Mr. 
Kelley was made president and took charge of the road. 

A meeting was soon held in Cleveland, at which he and 
others presented the advantages of the road, and there 
was a large increase of stock subscriptions, which, to- 
gether with subscriptions at Columbus and along the 
line, and the bonds of the road, enabled him to proceed 
with the work. 

His familiarity with the topography of the State en- 
abled him and the engineers to examine and locate the 
12 177 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

line in a comparatively short time. The entire road, 
though one hundred and forty-five miles in length, was 
all included in one contract, which was executed accord- 
ing to its terms, and the road was completed with heavy 
T rails and opened for business on the 22d of February, 
A. D. 1851. While the grading was in progress, Mr. 
Kelley went to Wales and procured the iron. 

The opening of this road was celebrated by the inhab- 
itants of Cleveland with unusual demonstrations. It 
was the first leading to that city, and contributed much 
to the growth and wealth which have since made it 
famous. The success of the road and its effect upon 
Cleveland were particularly gratifying to Mr. Kelley, as 
he never lost any of his attachment to his early home 
and associates. 

These two roads were feeders to each other, and from 
the time they were completed yielded large profits to 
the stockholders, profits which far exceeded their expec- 
tations, and also any estimates furnished to them by Mr. 
Kelley. 

While these roads were in progress, a charter was ob- 
tained for the " Cleveland, Painesville, and Ashtabula 
Railroad Company," authorizing the construction of a 
road from Cleveland to the Ohio line. It was intended, 
also, to extend the road to Erie in Pennsylvania. A 
road from Toledo to Cleveland had also been commenced. 
The road from Cleveland to Erie would complete a line 
to New York City, as the New York roads were expected 
to construct a road from Buffalo to Erie. That the road 

178 



Alfred Kelley; his Life and Work. 

from Cleveland to Erie, when completed, would be a 
public benefit and profitable to the stockholders was 
evident. A continuous line from Cincinnati to New 
York City would thus be secured, and this last link in 
the chain would receive all the passengers and freight 
from the South and West. Some surveys had been 
made and parts of the line marked for location. Mr. 
Kelley had been a director from the time the company 
was organized, and was appointed president on the 19th 
of March, 1857. 

Very soon after his appointment he passed over the 
route with an engineer, and, after a thorough examina- 
tion, changed much of the line to lower ground and to 
the present location. There was no serious difficulty to 
encounter, and there was no incident of special interest 
in the construction of the road to the Pennsylvania line. 
Its construction from that line to and through the city of 
Erie presented difficulties which, if they had been known, 
few would have undertaken to overcome. 

There were two roads through the State of New York, 
one of which terminated at Buffalo and the other at 
Dunkirk, both places being on Lake Erie. One of them, 
the southern, had adopted the broad or six feet gauge, 
and the other, the New York Central, a gauge of four 
feet, eight and a half inches. Each of these roads de- 
sired to extend its line to Erie, in order to connect with 
the western road. The city of Erie was quite willing 
the roads should be constructed, but was determined that 
neither should have the Ohio gauge of four feet, ten 

179 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

inches. If, therefore, the road east of Erie adopted the 
wide gauge, or one narrower than the Ohio road, all 
passengers would necessarily change cars, and all freight 
be trans-shipped at that place. 

The controversy between the New York roads contin- 
ued a considerable time. After much negotiation, in 
consideration of the fact that the railroads from Cleve- 
land and Toledo, then in progress, were of the four feet 
and ten inch gauge, it was agreed that the New York 
Central should be extended from Buffalo to Erie with the 
same or the Ohio gauge, and should be so managed as 
not to give to either of the great railroad interests any 
advantage over the other. It was assumed that the rail- 
road company in the State of Pennsylvania, having a 
charter to build a road from Erie to the New York line, 
would adopt the same gauge. That road was unfortu- 
nately under the control of inhabitants of Erie, who not 
only refused to do what was expected, but commenced to 
lay down a six-foot track on their road of nineteen miles 
in length. They proceeded still further, and procured a 
law to be passed, called the " gauge law," requiring all 
roads from Erie to the New York State line to adopt a 
six feet or a four feet, eight and a half inch gauge, and 
between Erie and the Ohio line a gauge of four feet and 
ten inches. By this means they aimed to secure a per- 
petual change of passengers and freight at the city of 
Erie. 

Mr. Kelley and the company he represented were op- 
posed to any change of the gauge west of Buffalo, and 

180 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

therefore they incurred the displeasure and ill-will of 
Erie and of the State of Pennsylvania to such an extent 
as to prevent any favorable legislation or grant of au- 
thority to construct a road to Erie. 

Although it would seem to be essential, in order to 
procure a change of passengers and a trans-shipment of 
freight at the city of Erie, that a road should be con- 
structed from the Ohio line to Erie, authority for that 
purpose could not be obtained, and the project would 
have failed, for the time being at least, if it had not been 
under the control of one possessed of an extraordinary 
share of originating talent, as well as courage in the ac- 
complishment of what was right. 

Mr. Kelley ascertained that the Franklin Canal Com- 
pany had a charter which was in full force, author- 
izing the construction of a canal along the line of the 
proposed road. An amendment to the charter also au- 
thorized the construction of a railroad instead of a canal, 
and the use of the towing path as the bed of the road. 
By an arrangement with the stockholders, he procured a 
majority of the shares and transferred them to the 
Cleveland, Painesville, and Ashtabula Railroad Company. 
He then commenced building the road from the Ohio 
State line to Erie under this charter. The city of Erie 
procured an injunction, and although, on the final hear- 
ing, the injunction was dissolved on technical grounds, 
it was held by the court that the charter did not embrace 
about five miles from the Ohio State line, east to what 
the court claimed to be the nearest point of the canal as 

181 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

described in its charter. There were thus five miles for 
which there was no charter, and the city of Erie, sus- 
tained by the State of Pennsylvania, now opposed any 
grant of authority unless the gauge was such as to re- 
quire a change of passengers and freight at that city. 

In this dilemma Mr. Kelley proposed to the railroad 
company that some of its younger members should buy 
the land along the five miles, build the road, and contract 
with the company for the use of it on fair terms. None 
were willing to take the risk. He then made an arrange- 
ment with the company to borrow from it the money nec- 
essary for the purpose, and he undertook to complete 
that part of the road on his own account. He was de- 
termined that neither Erie nor the State of Pennsylvania 
should prevent the construction of this great thorough- 
fare between the East and the West. 

It needs no explanation to satisfy any one of the great 
risk involved in such an undertaking, even if the hostility 
of Erie and the State were not considered. Mr. Kelley 
knew very well that without this five miles the residue of 
the road would be comparatively valueless, and therefore 
undertook the work, notwithstanding the pecuniary hazard. 
He went immediately upon the line, and very soon became 
acquainted with Judge James Miles, the owner of a farm 
of several thousand acres through which it passed, and 
who appreciated the importance of the road and the 
suicidal folly of the city of Erie. The Judge was widely 
known, being connected with the agricultural interests of 
the State and with its agricultural college, and being very 

182 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

influential in elevating and improving both the farming 
and farmers of the State. He was familiar with the 
value of lands, and acquainted with most of the owners 
along the line of the road. His character for honor and 
ingenuousness was such as to command the respect and 
confidence of every one. The two soon appreciated each 
other and became warm friends. 

With the aid of Judge Miles Mr. Kelley bought the 
right of way, where it could be obtained, and where it 
could not he bought the whole of the owner's land 
through which the road passed. When the purchases 
were concluded, he was the proprietor of many farms. 
By a law of the State certain county or township officers 
were authorized to grant the right to cross the wagon 
roads. This authority was obtained, and thus a connec- 
tion was made with the Franklin Canal Company, and 
the road was completed to Erie in November, 1852. 

Previous to this, the Eastern roads, with the Franklin 
Canal Company, and including the Erie and New York 
State Line road, had a meeting, and, after much consul- 
tation and many concessions, agreed upon a plan by 
which the latter road should be completed with the west- 
ern gauge. Notwithstanding this agreement, the con- 
nection of the two was resisted in the city of Erie by 
tearing up the tracks and other acts of violence. Mr. 
Kelley was threatened with being mobbed if he should 
presume to appear in Erie. He was informed of the 
threat while he was at Judge Miles's house, near what is 
now Miles Grove. He and the Judge immediately drove 

183 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

to Erie, and walked through the streets without molesta- 
tion, except that, just as they were leaving, the Judge was 
hit, but not injured, by a brick thrown by some person 
who kept at a safe distance from the two. A few of the 
citizens did not participate in the folly of the majority, 
and the hostility between the two parties was such as to 
disturb their social relations, the effects of which are said 
to have continued to this day. 

The proceedings of Erie and of the State involved 
much litigation in the State courts, but the railroad was 
used, notwithstanding delays and losses, and to some ex- 
tent was protected by an order of the United States, 
made at the request of Mr. Kelley, declaring it a " post 
road." This state of things continued until January, 
1854, when the State of Pennsylvania repealed the char- 
ter of the Franklin Canal Company. This act presented 
the question of authority on the part of the State to re- 
voke a charter after millions had been legitimately ex- 
pended in pursuance of its provisions. This question 
was presented to the Circuit Court of the United States 
by the attorneys of the company, Wm. Meredith and 
E. M. Stanton, the latter of whom was afterward Secre- 
tary of War. Mr. Stanton exhibited in this and other 
cases connected with the controversy the same prompt- 
ness, energy, and commanding talent which character- 
ized his official conduct during the rebellion. 

Before the case was presented to the court for final 
adjudication, and in May, 1854, the State settled the 
whole controversy by granting a charter for a road from 

184 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

the Ohio State line to Erie, and to connect with the 
eastern road at that place. It was grudgingly done, and 
upon terms which an honorable individual would hardly 
have exacted. One of the surviving directors who was 
familiar with all the proceedings thus summarizes the 
action of Mr. Ketley : 

" Mr. Kelley purchaaed the right of way (and in many 
cases entire farms) in his personal right, and built the road as 
the sole proprietor, and thus incurred large risk and responsi- 
bilities, from which he was only relieved, when, after great 
delays and vast expense, a charter was finally obtained, he 
conveyed his five miles to the corporation upon terms which 
were satisfactory to both parties." 

He thus in 1854 closed his connection with railroads, 
except as a director, in which capacity he was instru- 
mental in establishing rules and regulations beneficial 
both to corporations and the public. 

The presidency of other roads, coupled with large 
salaries, was offered to him, but they were declined be- 
cause he considered them in advance of the business of 
the country, and not therefore likely to be profitable to 
the stockholders or a benefit to the State. In one or 
two instances his opinions on this subject were severely 
criticised at the time ; but subsequent events have veri- 
fied the correctness of his judgment. A gentleman to 
whom one of the letters was addressed, said to the 
writer of this after Mr. Kelley's death, " it reads like 

prophecy." 

185 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CLOSING YEARS. 

The fugitive slave law. — He-election to the Senate. — Sessions 
of 1855-6 and 1856-7.. — The improper use of the public funds. — 
Investigation of treasury; alarming disclosures. — Bills to secure 
public funds. — Bill to authorize payment of taxes semi-annu- 
ally. — Suggestion to Mr. Yaple as to public schools. — Guarding 
the treasury. — The new State House. — Mr. Kelley's address of 
welcome. — Close of his legislative career. — The end. 



When Mr. Kelley had completed the railroads which 
connected the East with the West and South, and they 
were in successful and profitable operation, he regarded 
his work for the public as finished. The effects of age, 
excessive labor, and canal malaria upon his originally 
vigorous constitution, became more and more evident. 
He therefore contemplated a period of rest during the 
few remaining years of his life. In this he was disap- 
pointed. 

Both the State and Nation were then agitated by im- 
portant and exciting political questions. In the latter 
the fugitive slave law and the Dred Scott decision were 
producing a state of public feeling which was not allayed 
until after slavery was abolished and the rebellion was 
suppressed. In the former there were questions of State 
policy growing out of an apprehension in the minds of 
many that the funds of the State were not sufficiently 

186 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

secured against their improper use or loss. Public at- 
tention was thus again directed to Mr. Kelley as a nec- 
essary public agent, and in the fall of 1855 he was again 
elected to the Senate. 

Although but little more than thirty years have elapsed, 
it seems almost incredible that at that time a human be- 
ing could be seized in one State and carried off to an- 
other, as a slave, without even a trial or investigation as 
to his actual condition ; and that a slave was mere prop- 
erty, and had no rights which a white man was bound to 
respect. It seemed to Mr. Kelley that a persom claimed 
as a slave ought to have the right to an impartial trial 
by jury before he should be carried by force into a slave 
State ; and one of his first acts as a member of the 
Senate of 1856 was the introduction of a resolution 
directing the Judiciary Committee to inquire into and 
report upon that subject. Upon examination it was 
ascertained that the State was powerless, and could only 
protest against such wrong and injustice, which the 
Legislature did respectfully and decidedly. 

At this session, as at many previous ones, Mr. Kel- 
ley was made chairman of the Finance Committee. It 
had long been conceded that when there were difficulties 
to surmount or new and important objects to be at- 
tained, no one was so likely to overcome the one, or de- 
vise a mode to accomplish the other, as Mr. Kelley. At 
this session the Finance Committee had much to do. 
His own observation, and facts which came to his knowl- 
edge from other sources, satisfied him that the funds 

187 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

belonging to the State Treasury had been improperly 
used for a number of years ; and he was apprehensive 
that the State had been, and was then, wronged by the 
misconduct of its Treasurers. For the purpose of ascer- 
taining the truth in regard to the Public Treasury he, 
as chairman, introduced a resolution that the Finance 
Committee " be instructed to ascertain and report to 
the Senate the amount, character, and condition of the 
funds in the treasury, and that for this purpose they be 
authorized to employ some competent accountant to as- 
sist them in making the necessary examinations ;" which 
was immediately adopted. 

The resolution was delivered to the Treasurer, who re- 
plied that a committee of one branch of the Legislature 
had no authority to examine the treasury, and he would 
not recognize an examining committee from the Senate 
alone. He denied also the riadrt of the committee to 

o 

employ an accountant to aid them in such examination. 

This communication, on Mr. Kelley's motion, was re- 
ferred to the judiciary committee, who made a short and 
decisive report, which opened the doors and vaults of the 
treasury to a committee of the Senate. 

Near the close of the session, and on the 7th of April, 
the committee made a report, in which it was clearly 
demonstrated that there were " checks, drafts, bills of 
exchange and certificates of deposit, the gross sum being 
$296,291.26, which had been held (with but few excep- 
tions, and for comparatively small sums), from fifteen 

188 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

days to upwards of two months without having been pre- 
sented either for acceptance or payment." That the 
committee had " reason to believe, viewing the con- 
dition of the funds in the treasury, and the large bal- 
ance due from the late Treasurer at the time of giving 
up his office, the various times when parts of that 
balance were paid to the present Treasurer, and the fact 
that there still remains a large balance in his hands, that 
most of the drafts, certificates of deposit, and accept- 
ances now in the treasury, were paid to the present by 
the late Treasurer, and were obtained by him with the 
understanding, on the part of the parties furnishing the 
same, that they would not be presented for payment until 
the demands of the treasury should make it necessary 
to demand their payment." 

The committee further reported that there was belong- 
ing to the treasury the sum of $147,048.49, consisting 
of drafts, etc., of a bank and a firm which were consid- 
ered, as far as regarded these operations, " as substan- 
tially one concern ; " that " it also appears that both the 
late and present Treasurers have been, if they are not 
now, interested in the bank," and that proceedings were 
then pending to test the question whether the charter of 
the bank was forfeited. 

They also found .that the next preceding Treasurer 
had given his predecessor a receipt in full for the balance 
due by him without specifying the amount, when he still 
had in his hands $302,115.86. 

It was also discovered that when the present Treasurer 

189 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work 

took possession of the office, there was an unpaid bal- 
ance in his predecessor's hands of $212,432.57. A part 
of this sum was due from a Cincinnati bank which had 
failed, a part from a Toledo bank which had also failed, 
a part from an individual in Dayton who had executed a 
deed of trust for the benefit of the State, and a part 
from a firm in Cincinnati which also had failed. 
The committee then add : 

"When to these circumstances we add the declaration on 

oath of , there seems to be little room to doubt that 

the late Treasurer was interested in the bank (a bank in Vir- 
ginia), and used the funds of the State to put it in operation, 
or at least to sustain its credit. 

" The committee can not forbear to express their decided 
disapprobation of the , practice of using the public money 
either directly or indirectly, for the purposes of private emol- 
uments, or to build up or foster any private company or insti- 
tution, more especially one in which any officer or agent hav- 
ing the custody of such moneys may be interested. 

" Stringent laws of a penal eharactar, combined with fre- 
quent and searching examinations by the Legislature or its 
committees into the management of the moneys and finances 
of the State, seem to be absolutely necessary to prevent great 
pecuniary losses to the State, and a still greater depreciation 
of public morals. 

" Since the examination of the Treasury Department by a 
commission created for the purpose about nine years ago, no 
careful examination of that department appears to have been 
made. Years have gone by since there has been even a criti- 
cal comparison of the books, accounts, and vouchers of the 
Auditor and Treasurer of State. Thus the great object of 
making the Auditor's office a complete check on that of the 
Treasurer has for years been rendered entirely abortive. 

"The impossibility of going into a critical examination of 
all the transactions, book accounts, and vouchers of the 
Treasury Department, extending through a period of nine 
years, by a committee of the Senate during the session, will 

190 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

at once be seen and acknowledged. Even if ordinary legis- 
lative duties did not occupy most of the time and attention of 
the members of the committee, the entire period of the ses- 
sion would hardly suffice to make such an examination." 

The committee reported a joint resolution for the ap- 
pointment of a joint committee to examine during the 
recess of the General Assembly the books, accounts, 
vouchers, records, and proceedings of the Auditor of 
State, the Treasurer of State, the Commissioners of the 
Canal Fund and the Sinking Fund. The Legislature, in 
pursuance of the suggestion, provided for such commit- 
tee and other investigating committees, with full power 
and authority, by a law enacted for that purpose. 

The annual reports of the Treasurers represented the 
funds of the State as safe and under their control. 
Nothing was said explaining their real condition, or show- 
ing how large a portion of them were in the possession 
of favorites or used for other purposes. The Legisla- 
tures had met, made appropriations, and adjourned, as- 
suming those reports to be accurate, and to represent the 
true condition of the treasury. While the Legislature 
and the public were acting upon the statements in those 
reports as though they were true, one Treasurer went out 
of office having his successor's receipt in full and retain- 
ing in his hands $302,115.86, and that successor went 
out of office retaining in his hands $212,434.57. The 
first sum was all paid some years afterward, and a por- 
tion of the last sum has been paid, but much of it was 
lost. In a conversation between Mr. Kelley and Hon. 

191 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

Alfred Yaple, who was a member of the House when 
these proceedings were in progress, Mr. Kelley said, as 
reported by Mr. Yaple, " that one Treasurer had been 
the weak, accommodating tool of the designing plunder- 
ers who had obtained krge amounts of the State's money 
from him, and could not, or would not, pay them back ; " 
and that his successor " had foolishly undertaken to con- 
ceal the fact for him in the vain hope, on the part of 
both," that the money would be repaid by those who 
held it. Mr. Kelley then added : 

" I am going to prepare a bill which will enable the people 
to keep their own money until it is actually needed, and stop 
the dangers arising from public officers and their favorites 
speculating on the half of it for six months every year, and 
endangering its loss ; and I shall devise a plan by which the 
actual condition of the treasury can be got at." 

The investigation of the treasury disclosed the fact 
that most of the money was needed in January and 
July. The taxes for the whole year were then paid in 
December. One-half of the amount was therefore idle 
for six months. 

In order to diminish the temptation to use the money 
thus lying idle in the treasury, and also to give the tax- 
payers the use of it when it was not needed by the State, 
Mr. Kelley prepared a bill authorizing the semi-annual 
payment of all taxes. The bill passed the Senate, but 
was defeated in the House, for some reason which is un- 
accountable, unless the following statement, copied from 
the Columbus Sunday Capital, may be said to solve the 

enigma : 

192 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

" There were court-house rings iu those days as well as 
now. These, together with the bankers from all over the 
State who were using the State and county money, fought the 
measure, just and reasonable as it was." 

While examining the treasury, Mr. Kelley prepared 
a bill which became a law in April, 1856, which provides 
that all money paid into or out of the treasury shall 
only be so paid on the order of the Auditor, and every 
payment into the treasury shall be receipted for by the 
Treasurer, and the person so paying shall deposit the re- 
ceipt with the Auditor, which receipt shall be the sole 
evidence of such payment. 

A corresponding provision is made with reference to 
payments into the treasury made elsewhere " than at 
the treasury office in Columbus." 

The details are so drawn that no money can pass into 
or out of the Treasury without the action of the Auditor, 
and the Auditor's books must always show the exact 
condition of the funds of the State ; and they can not 
be misapplied or improperly used without a fraudulent 
agreement between the Auditor and Treasurer, and the 
person paying or receiving money. It provides that no 
money shall be paid out unless the same has been ap- 
propriated by law to the purpose for which it is paid. 
Examinations of drafts and warrants are required to be 
made four times during the year ; and a general exam- 
ination is required by the Auditor and a person ap- 
pointed by the Governor once each year. 

It also provided that no money belonging to the State 
13 193 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

should be placed, deposited, or kept by the Treasurer or 
by his direction elsewhere than in the treasury at Colum- 
bus, without taking, in every instance, a bond secured by 
United States or Ohio stocks, or by individual residents 
as collateral security to the Treasurer's bond, nor until 
the terms of the deposit, the terms and conditions of 
the bond, and the securities or names of the sureties, 
should have been approved by the Auditor and Attorney- 
General, depositing the same with the Auditor of State. 

During the recess between the sessions of 1856-1857 
the joint committee appointed to examine the treasury 
made a thorough investigation and an elaborate report, 
in which every statement made in that of Mr. Kelley was 
confirmed by conclusive testimony, and showing that the 
money of the State had been used, during several pre- 
ceding years, for illegitimate purposes, by which all the 
funds of the State were endangered and a large amount 
was lost. 

Mr. Kelley then supplemented the laws of 1856 by pro- 
curing the enactment in 1857 of another which requires 
the Treasurer to collect immediately all moneys belong- 
ing to the State in the hands of any other person, com- 
pany, or depositary, except such as are deposited in 
strict conformity with the provisions of the act of 1856. 
It makes it the duty of the Governor every three months 
to appoint a suitable person, who, in conjunction with 
the Auditor or some competent clerk in his office, shall 
examine the books, accounts, and vouchers of the Treas- 
urer's and Auditor's office, and if the amount in posses- 

194 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

sion of the Treasurer is less than the amount with which 
he stands charged in the Auditor's office, he shall be as- 
sumed to be a defaulter, and prosecuted as such. The 
main provisions of these statutes have been retained to 
this time, and have been very instrumental in protecting 
the public against the loss or improper use of its money. 
The session of 1857 was the first held in the present 
State House. In commemoration of the event there 
was, on the 6th of January, a formal celebration of its 
occupancy. The citizens of Columbus acted in the ca- 
pacity of host, and the Legislature, public officers, and 
citizens of the State generally were invited as guests. 
A very large number assembled and participated in the 
proceedings. Mr. Kelley was selected to deliver the ad- 
dress of welcome, and at the appointed time in the 
evening spoke as follows to as many as could get within 
the reach of his voice : 

"Fellow citizens of Ohio: — I am commissioned by my neigh- 
bors of Franklin County and the city of Columbus to tender 
you a hearty welcome to the capital city, and especially to the 
building in which we are assembled. In this splendid build- 
ing they claim, on account of its location among them, no pe- 
culiar rights or privileges. It belongs to the citizens of Ohio 
in common. It was created in accordance with their will, 
with their money, and for their use. 

" But we of Columbus, because it is in our midst, because 
we are at home, have assumed to do the honors of the day, to 
invite you to come among us, to join us in dedicating the 
people's house to the people's use ; and in rejoicing that it is so 
far finished as to admit at least of its partial occupation for 

195 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work.- 

the purposes intended. We trust that for thus assuming we 
shall be forgiven. 

"It is said of Athens, that glorious little republic of an- 
tiquity — little in extent of territory, small in population, but 
teemiug with men of genius scarcely short of inspiration, 
whose thoughts, words, and works, seldom equaled, never sur- 
passed, have made an impression never to be effaced, and ex- 
ercised a controlling influence over civilized man in all enlight- 
ened nations from their time to ours, and will continue to do 
so to the end of time — that while her public buildings exhib- 
ited the perfection of grandeur and symmetrical beauty, her 
citizens occupied dwellings of the most unpretending charac- 
ter. Now, though I am too much a lover of architectural 
beauty to condemn it even in private residences, I can not but 
admire that devotional feeling which impels men to dedicate 
to God, and that patriotism which leads men to dedicate to 
their country, the most costly and magnificent specimens of 
architecture. 

"The building in which we are now assembled combines 
that sublime massiveness, that dignity of form and feature, 
that beautiful symmetry of proportions, which together con- 
stitute true architectural excellence in a high degree. True, 
it may have its imperfections; what work of man has not? 
Still, it is worthy of the great and patriotic people by whom 
and for whom it was erected. 

"It is emblematic of the moral grandeur of the State 
whose councils are here to be assembled, whose archives are 
here to be kept, and I trust safely, so long as Ohio shall be a 
State, or time itself endure. May those councils be so wise 
that their beneficent influence will be as enduring as these 
w r alls. 

"Citizens of Ohio, members of the General Assembly, we 
congratulate you. Let us congratulate each other, that this 
noble structure approaches completion. 

"Again, on behalf of the citizens of this city, and of this 
county, I bid you a cordial welcome." 

196 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

Governor Chase responded on behalf of the citizens, 
and after examining the legislative halls and other de- 
partments of the building, and partaking of a bountiful 
supper, they all retired at a late hour, much gratified 
both with the building and the reception. 

The sessions of 1856 and 1857 closed Mr. Kelley's 
legislative labors and his public life. When he became a 
member for the first time, in 1814, he was the youngest 
man in either branch, and in 1857 he was the oldest. 

During a portion of the last two sessions, he was con- 
fined to his house by acute disease, and much of his 
legislative work was performed when most men would 
have yielded to their physical infirmities and remained 
at home. As was his custom and nature, he did not 
spare himself when discharging a public trust or duty. 
What had been especially under his charge had been ac- 
complished, except the passage of the bill providing for 
the semi-annual payment of taxes. This had passed the 
Senate and was pending in the House. Its disposition 
in that body, and Mr. Kelley's comments, are referred to 
by Mr. Yaple as follows : 

" It has already been stated that Kelley tried, in every way, 
to get the Legislature to adopt his plan for the semi-annual 
collection of taxes — finally tacking it on the general appropri- 
ation bill, but that he failed because the House voted it down. 
When that vote was taken, the end of the session and the 
time for adjournment was at hand. It was after midnight — 
a night dark, blustering, and stormy ; snow and rain com- 
mingled and falling thick and fast. Kelley listened with 
stem anxiety to the roll call and the responses of the members. 
The "no," as uttered by many, was not only emphatic, but 

197 



Alfred Kelley ; Ms Life and Work. 

delivered in a tone and manner as if intended for him to hear 
and see that he was aimed at, and indicated intentional insult 
to him. The result was announced, the measure declared 
lost, and Kelley buttoned his coat up to his throat, drew 
tightly around his neck his fur collar, adjusted his head 
squarely and firmly upon his shoulders, and started for the 
door. Feeling mortified at the disrespect shown him, I 
sought his side and expressed my regret for what had tran- 
spired. 'Oh,' said he, 'I am used to it. It don't trouble 
me. These are honest, well-meaning men enough ; but I do 
wonder how many of them were able to find their way 
from home to Columbus. I hope they will find their way 
back in safety, and turn their attention to something they 
know more about than legislation.' . . . And then with 
a manner that spoke his assurance of the adoption of the law 
for the semi-annual collection of taxes at no distant day, in 
spite of the action of that Legislature, the old man disappeared 
in the darkness of the street in that midnight storm, his liv- 
ing voice to be heard no more forever in the councils of the 
State." 

That bill became a law on the 2d of April, 1859. 

In the following letter Mr. Yaple gives a clear and 
satisfactory statement of Mr. Kelley's position upon our 
common school system. Although the letter was not 
written for publication, its introduction here is au- 
thorized : 

Cincinnati, March 9, 1886. 
Hon. Jas. L. Bates. 

Dear Sir: — Yesterday I sent you a copy of my essay be- 
fore our Literary Club on Alfred Kelley, read in 1875. 

Time did not admit of my saying any thing about Mr. 
Kelley's position upon, and efforts in behalf of, our common 
school system. In a biography this should be appropriately 
treated. 

As late as 1856-7, when I was in the Legislature, some 
of the wealthy counties, some of my constituents from Ross, 
especially, wished to have the amount of the school taxes 

198 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

raised in each county applied to the schools in such county. I 
spoke with Mr. Kelley about the matter. He said, in sub- 
stance, that the Constitution of the State enjoined upon the 
General Assembly the passage of suitable laws to encourage 
schools and the means of instruction ; that to do so properly 
he had always maintained that every child in the State had 
an equal right to the benefit of this provision ; and its equal 
share of the public money raised by the State for common 
school educational purposes should be appropriated for it; 
that the rich could educate their children, and only the 
poor stood in need of State aid, and that by apportioning to 
every child in the State its equal share of money, the poorer 
class would receive a benefit of which, by any other method, 
they would be deprived, and the system fail in accomplish- 
ing the end for which it was created. He said great diffi- 
culty was encountered in securing school moneys from the 
localities (counties) where raised, and in applying them 
equally, according to the number of school children, in every 
school district in the State. Local interests were against it, 
and the prejudice always existing against change. Change 
did not always signify reform or improvement, but any great 
beneficial change had always met and always will meet de- 
termined oppposition, as it breaks up the settled habit, and 
inspires fears, of imagined calamities; the obviously necessary 
and most beneficial changes always meeting with the strongest 
resistance, while a mere " tinkering " measure of no real bene- 
fit gets through smoothly. My judgment according with his 
views, I declined to introduce any bill, or advocate any meas- 
ure, looking to the expenditure within each county of school 
moneys raised by it by taxation. 

I hope a complete biography of Mr. Kelley will be pub- 
lished. Had he lived in, and done for, any New England 
State, what he did for Ohio, his published life would long ago 
have been for sale in every book store, and on every book 
Stand in the Union and England. 

Yours truly, Alfjred Yaple. 

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Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

After these sessions Mr. Kelley had a short rest, but 
neither health nor strength. The recent strain upon him 
was more than he could bear. He had previously with- 
drawn from the responsible business relations which 
had occupied a large portion of his time, and although 
he was able to enjoy the society of his family and 
friends, which was always grateful to him, his constitu- 
tion was too much broken to admit of even a partial 
restoration to health. Slow paralysis soon commenced 
its work, and was beyond the reach of medical skill. He 
was aware of its commencement and progress, but his 
cheerfulness did not forsake him, and patience, charity, 
and good will characterized his feelings and intercourse 
until his death on the second day of December, A. D. 
1859, at the age of seventy. 

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Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

PERSONAL TRAITS. 

Mr. Keller's probity. — Originating talent. — Good judgment. — 
Executive ability. — Generous instincts. — Literary tastes — Love 
of poetry. — Scientific knowledge. — Familiarity with geography. — 
Hospitality. — Mr. Yaple's reminiscences. — Business habits. — Do- 
mestic traits.— Recollections of Mathias Martin and Judge 
Swan. — "Alfred Keller's place in history." — Henry Clay's esti- 
mate. — The last visit of his life. — "Just like him." 



The preceding narrative necessarily implies in its 
subject an extraordinary degree of integrity, an unselfish- 
ness rarely equaled, a more scrupulous attention to pub- 
lic and private trusts than to personal interests, and an 
entire subjection of all private gain to the public wel- 
fare. 

Mr. Kelley had the originating talent which is so rare 
among men. His life exhibits a series of efforts to de- 
velop the State, to advance the education and morals of 
its people, and to secure its property against loss by 
public or private fraud or unfaithfulness. Coupled with 
it, he also possessed good judgment, which is exhibited 
in the success of all his projects. To this was added 
also executive and constructive talent. These four qual- 
ities are rarely combined, and the history of this country 
furnishes very few instances of men who have possessed 
them in an eminent degree. It is easy to find fault and 

201 



Alfred Kelley; his Life and Work. 

discuss subjects, but it requires a higher order of talent 
to develop the resources of a State, or save it from the 
ruin of bad management. It is not difficult to acquire a 
fortune, if it is made the sole object of life, but it is 
necessary to rise to a higher plane before much can be 
accomplished for the good of others. As a consequence, 
when any important object was to be accomplished for 
the State, or any evil remedied or provided against, at- 
tention was immediately turned to Mr. Kelley as the 
most eminently qualified to perform the service. 

Though stern in the discharge of public duties and as 
trustee for others, he was the reverse in the transaction 
of his private business. In his private business he was 
liberal and generous, almost to a fault. He had little 
regard for property, and at no period in his life did he 
strive, or make it a primary object, to accumulate it. 

It was said of him by an intimate friend that " there 
was not a particle of envy, avarice, or malignity in his 
composition." This is not an exaggeration. He was 
always open and frank in his business and intercourse. 
He had no concealments and little curiosity. 

Although so eminently qualified for, and so constantly 
employed in, the discharge of public duties and trusts, 
his literary and scientific attainments were above those 
of the average of educated men. He was fond of poetry, 
and was familiar with all the standard poetical works. 
He read much, but less than many educated men. He 
took little pleasure in works which did not furnish him 
food for thought, and entertained the opinion that the 

202 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

modern tendency is to read too much and think too 
little. In the winter of 1847, he delivered some lectures 
before the Columbus Mechanics' Institute on the subjects 
of light and heat, in which, among other things, he 
claimed and demonstrated that light, heat, electricity, 
and magnetism are different exhibitions of the same 
agent. 

His topographical knowledge was extraordinary. The 
rivers and mountains, the water sheds, the plains and 
deserts and atmospherical currents of the globe, were 
familiar to him, and a gratifying source of study. Once, 
when he was riding from London to Edinburgh in a stage 
coach with a number of Englishmen, the latter were dis- 
cussing the name of a stream they had just crossed, and 
were much surprised to be informed by an American of its 
name, and also to what river it was a tributary. Many 
years before a canal or a railway was projected between 
St. Petersburgh and Moscow, he pointed out on a map, 
to a member of his family, the route for either — where 
the summit of a canal would be and how it could be sup- 
plied with water. A railway has since been built sub- 
stantially on that line. He had also an unusual fondness 
for nature ; always preferring the country, and the works 
of God, to the works of man. His feelings were often 
moved by the grand and beautiful in natural scenery. 

His hospitality was such that he kept what is called 
an "open house" from the time of his marriage to his 
last sickness. Company at meals was a common, and at 

203 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

some periods, a daily occurrence. At his table the con- 
versation was uniformly interesting and instructive. 

Some of his peculiarties are well presented by Mr. 
Yaple, in his " Reminiscences." Though a political op- 
ponent, he was partial to Mr. Kelley, and studied his 
character. He says : 

"But I feel that the limits of an essay will not admit of 
doing any kind of justice to the public life and acts of Alfred 
Kelley. When an extended history of Ohio shall be written, 
he will fill many and its most important pages. I can do no 
more than give a few examples from my own observation, il- 
lustrating the character of the man. In stature, Mr. Kelley 
was between five feet ten and eleven inches ; he was com- 
pactly built, neither broad nor slender ; his head was set 
firmly, his appearance being that of a man carved out of a 
block of marble. He neither affected popular manners nor 
sought popularity. He possessed, emphatically, the fortiter in 
re, with but little or none of the suaviter in modo. His mind 
worked with the accuracy of the geometric lathe, and his ac- 
tion and conduct adhered strictly to the line- of his ideas. 
This made him unpopular with all who sought, from persoDal 
interest or supposed better information, 10 induce him to de- 
part from or vary plans or purposes he .had formed. To such 
he listened with impatience, and showed them but little re- 
spect, but adhered firmly to his purpose and moved straight 
toward the object he had in view. This enabled him to con- 
struct the canals within the time and for the sums estimated. 
He would not vary the proper line of the work to accommo- 
date any local interests, and this caused many people to feel 
hardly toward him; but, feeling that he was right, he was 
heedless of their clamor and opposition. One would hardly 
expect to find a poetical nature in such a man ; yet I was as- 
tonished to find how intimate he was with Shakespeare and 
Milton. He seemed to me to have memorized the principal 
parts of the works of both. 

"Shortly after I entered the Legislature, and had become 
acquainted with him, he gave me some directions as to the 
proper course to pursue, which, I think, could be followed 
with advantage to the country and themselves by congress- 
men and legislators. Said he : 

204 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

" 1. If a matter be under consideration about which you 
are indifferent, say nothing, and, as a rule, vote ' No.' A 
negative vote will always be less to your injury, and give you 
less trouble than an affirmative one. 

"2. If it be, in your judgment, wrong, always oppose it 
squarely and determinedly. 

"3. If you favor the general object of the bill, but think 
the provisions and details of it are inadequate, or not prac- 
tical, begin by presenting a better, or you will be regarded as 
a mere captious objector, or, at best, a critic more or less 
respectable, but will tacitly confess yourself incapable of 
doing what you admit ought to be done ; and you will expose 
yourself to the danger of being thought a secret enemy of 
the measure but too cowardly and insincere to openly avow 
your hostility. 

" 4. Before preparing or introducing a bill, carefully ex- 
amine all the legislation affecting the subject in any manner, 
and consider what the common law would be in the absence 
of all legislation. Should your bill pass, after you have 
framed its provisions with such knowledge, it will have the 
merit, at least, of not confusing the law and thus breeding 
litigation. 

"He then said that he could not recall any instance in 
which any statute framed by him had ever had a disputed 
construction by any department of the government or in any 
court. 

" Were these rules observed by those who introduce bills in 
the Legislature, there would be far fewer of them ; they 
would be less voluminous; and ©ur laws would be much wiser 
and freer frpm confusion and uncertainty. 

"He despised cant and hypocrisy. 

"His love of order w 7 as almost extreme. . . . 

" His love of punctuality, in keeping hours set for meetings 
appointed for any purpose, was carried into social life. Where 
parties w T ere given upon the announcement that Mr. and Mrs. 
So and So would be at home on a given night, at such an hour, 
he disapproved decidedly of the invited not appearing before 
lOJ, 11, llijr, or 12 o'clock, regarding it as a mere sham-seem- 
ing by such persons that they w T ere so independent in their 
circumstances that time was of no consequence; that they 
could afford to run all night and sleep all day. This want of 
regard for hours designated for the assembling of parties had 
become the fashion in Columbus. He gave a party, and an- 

205 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

nounced, upon the cards of invitation, that Mr. and Mrs. 
Kelley, on the evening designated, would be at home from 8 
until 12 o'clock, letting the late party -goers know that their 
usual hour for attending was the time fixed by him for their 
leave-taking." 

Mr. Kelley's local and personal attachments were un- 
usually strong, and his affection for his family was in- 
tense. And, notwithstanding all the unjustifiable and 
unreasonable abuse which was often heaped upon him, 
he never harbored or permitted himself to cherish enmity 
or ill-will. Some of those who published the most atro- 
cious attacks upon him lived to praise him for his serv- 
ices on behalf of the State. One of the leading news- 
paper writers and one of his bitter defamers, on more 
than one occasion within the past year or two, said to 
the writer that Mr. Kelley's biography should be writ- 
ten, as he had done more for the development and finan- 
cial and commercial prosperity of Ohio than any other 
of its citizens. 

In an article published more than twenty-five years 
after Mr. Kelley's death, in the Columbus Sunday Cap- 
ital, a paper politically opposed to him, and much of 
which article was dictated by a strong partisan and po- 
litical adversary, Mr. Mathias Martin, are the following 
statements, which fairly illustrate how his character and 
services are now estimated : 

"I remember Alfred Kelley very well," said Matt. Martin. 
. . . " He was a man of force and intellect; in person he 
was dignified and commanding, sedate in his manners, and 
gentlemanly. . . . 

* 'Although I was Mr. Kelley's political antagonist, and 

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Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

fought him during every campaign, I always regarded him as 
the soul of honor in every trust held by him, and no one 
could charge that he appropriated a cent of public moneys to 
his own uses. 

"At the head of Sixth Street, on Broad, stands a roomy 
and stately structure, the builder of which passed away over 
a quarter of a century ago. The architecture is of a severe 
Grecian type, and reminds one of Monticello or Mt. Vernon. 
Being in a large park, it is often mistaken for a Governor's man- 
sion, or one of the public institutions. The owner and builder 
of this structure was Alfred Kelley, one of the marked men 
of the State, and one who has left an indelible impress on our 
finances, credit, the means of transportation, and the internal 
improvements of the State. 

"The American Encyclopedia contains some twenty or thirty 
lines concerning the life and services of Mr. Kelley, which is 
nearly all the printed information at hand concerning a citi- 
zen who, in his time, has had more influence on the financial 
and business legislation of the State than any one in it, and 
one to whose energy Columbus and the State owes the con- 
struction and working of its system of land and water trans- 
portation [sic]. 

" The Capital has collected from among the few early con- 
temporaries of Mr. Kelley who still remain on the field of 
action, some pertinent facts which in the light of events that 
have transpired since his death, are doubly interesting, for they 
prove his wise judgment and foresight. The facts gathered at 
the outset impress one ^hat a man's acts do not live but: for 
the moment, but the effects of them, whether for good or bad, 
continue long years after the actors have passed away and are 
forgotten. J 

"It was a comparatively small matter at the start, or 
seemed to be, when Ohio abandoned imprisonment for debt, 
or when the State credit was saved untarnished, or her system 
of taxation and finance completely reformed, or her great 
public works honestly built, yet how beneficial have these 
measures been. How, like the free air and sunshine, do all 
enjoy them, and it is the leader and prime mover in these 
works — Mr. Kelley — whose career, or the salient points in it, 
we propose to summarize. . . . 

"At the outset of Mr. Keliey's career, Ohio was a rude, 
frontier State with but few means of communication, little 
wealth, and crude systems of laws ami taxation ; at his death 

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Alfred Kelley ; Ids Life and Work. 

it was firmly established as the third State in the Union, 
prosperous and flourishing ; and in bringing about these 
changes and paving the way for them, Mr. Kelley showed a 
master mind. 

" Mr. Kelley led in advocating the laws for building the 
canals, and after they were passed was made the acting com- 
missioner. The people of the State told him in effect that as 
he had claimed the canals could be constructed for so many 
millions, that ' there was the money, go and build them.' 

''He did build them for the amount claimed, and it was 
only his unswerving integrity that enabled him to do so, and 
save the credit of the State. 

The same article under the title of " reminiscences/' 
repeats what had been said by Judge Joseph R. Swan a 
few days before. 

"I do not remember what Mr. Kelley paid for his East 
Broad street place, said Judge Swan the other morning, but 
suppose it was about $30 an acre. You can have some idea 
of what sort of a piece it was when I tell you that Broad, in 
front of where the Cathedral now stands, was laid with cor- 
duroy. . . . 

"For several years before Mr. Kelley built the residence 
in which he died, I am convinced that his entire family ex- 
penses did not exceed $700 or $800 a year, all told. He 
lived very economically. His wife, too, whom I well re- 
member as she appeared in those days, was a most noble 
woman. Things were different in those homespun times, said 
the judge, reflectively. I think that the key to Mr. Kelley's 
great success w r as his integrity. You younger generation 
have scarcely any idea of its importance and far reaching 
effects in a man's character, and more especially if he is a 
public man. 

"He was rigid with the contractors on the canals and rail- 
ways, and you may be sure that there was no slip-shod work 
or nonsense permitted. He had rooms, I remember, in the 
old Goodale Hotel — in that part where Eberiy's store now 
stands — from which he used to start out in a morning down 
the line of the canal, armed with a long rod, to prod into 
the canal banks for logs, which the contractors would try to 

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Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

run in as so much earth-work. He was a regular terror to 
them." 

A few days after the preceding article was published, 
the same paper contained the following : 

"ALFRED KELLEY'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 

"A recent issue of the Ross County Register has the following : 

"The last Columbus Sunday Capital has a long article in re- 
gard to Hon. Alfred Kelley, an old-time citizen of that place, 
showing that he was ' the father of our system of internal im- 
provements ; the author of the law abolishing imprisonment 
for debt in Ohio ; the originator of our system of taxation ; ' 
that he suspected and tried to get at the Breslin defalcation a 
year or more before it became known to the public ; and, 
finally, that the Ohio State Banking System, of which he was 
the author, furnished the model for our present National 
Banking System. The three last items in this catalogue of 
facts were brought out in an editorial published in the Register 
something over a year since, previous to which time it seemed 
to have escaped the observation of others that the Ohio State 
Banking System, which was superseded by our present Na- 
tional Banking System, really furnished the model for the 
latter system. 

"Under the Ohio system, State bonds deposited with the 
Treasurer of State furnished security to the note-holders, as 
National bonds deposited in the United States treasury now 
furnish the security for the redemption of National bank-notes. 
Previous to "the adoption of the Kelley plan, the holder of a 
bank-note had little, if any, security beyond the assets the 
bank might happen to have on hand at the time of suspen- 
sion ; after its adoption, the note of a broken bank became as 
good as gold. Previous to the adoption of the Kelley plan 
of taxation, a capitalist might reside in Ohio, and by loaning 
his money to people residing outside of the State, entirely es- 
cape taxation. 

"Both of these measures, so salutary in their effects, met 
with the united opposition of the Democratic party, and Mr. 
Kelley had not a little trouble with a good many of his party 
associates in the Legislature, who chafed under his leadership, 
to gain their support. But as a practical legislator he was 
head and shoulders above every other man of his time residing 

14 209 



Alfred Kelley ; his Life and Work. 

within the State, and it is doubtful whether he had his equal 
in that way outside of it. . . 

" But with all his ability, Mr. Kelley was not popular with 
his party ; and as to his political enemies, they hated him with 
what King David calls ' a bitter hatred.' But the State owes 
him a debt of gratitude for his great services in her behalf, 
and would honor herself by erecting to his memory a statue 
in the most eligible situation in the State House grounds." 

A remark made to one of Mr. Kelley's daughters by 
bis friend, Henry Clay, may with propriety be added : 
" Mr. Kelley had too much cast-iron in his composition 
to be popular." 

Shortly after his death, the friend who received the 
visit referred to wrote as follows : 

" With a benevolence and sympathy only felt by the pure 
in spirit, the last visit of his life was one of condolence to a 
friend in affliction, and with and for him he probably shed his 
last tear. In this interview, he referred to a presentiment 
that he should not live to witness the commencemeut of 
another year, a prevision which was fatally verified." 

Strange as it may seem, after such a life of activity, 
of employment and antagonisms so varied, when his 
work was done, his integrity, usefulness, and disinterest- 
edness were fully conceded by those who had traduced 
him ; and at the close of his life no one commanded 
more respect and admiration from all classes of his 
fellow-citizens. 

A tall, well proportioned, and massive obelisk of 

granite marks the spot where his body lies ; and a 

laborer who knew him well, after examining it, said, " It 

is just-like him." 

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